Qatar boss issues warning to Australian Government over passenger caps

The head of Qatar Airways has issued a stern ultimatum to the Australian Government over its strict caps on incoming arrival numbers.

The boss of Qatar Airways has urged the Federal Government to rethink its strict caps on incoming traveller numbers or the airline will be forced to cut flights to Australia.

The Doha-based carrier has kept up more flights to Australia than any other airline during the pandemic and has brought more than 180,000 Australians home from overseas.

But the thousands of travellers and expats still stuck abroad are facing increasing difficulties getting home as Australia’s strict limits on incoming arrivals – which restricts airlines to carrying between 25 and 60 passengers per flight – has intensified demand and seen prices skyrocket to as much as $10,000 a seat.

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Qatar has operated more flights to Australia during the pandemic than any other airline. Picture: Karim Jaafar/AFP

Stranded travellers have complained about getting bumped from flights multiple times, sometimes within hours of departure, as airlines such as Qatar prioritise higher-paying passengers so they can stay profitable sending mostly empty planes on the long and costly routes.

Qatar’s chief executive officer Akbar Al Baker has warned the airline may need to withdraw its 16-hour flights from Doha to Australia if the Federal Government doesn’t relax passenger caps.

“We have between 38 and 42 seats in our business class. And because we have such a limited number of passengers that we can carry, we have no other alternative but to maximise the yield that we get because you know very well Australia is at the end of the world,” he told ABC’s News Breakfast on Friday.

“It is a very long flight and when we carry limited numbers of passengers you can see that it puts a huge strain on our costs.”

Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker.

Mr Al Baker has also urged Australia to consider giving arriving passengers the choice of paying for three-, four- or five-star hotels for mandatory quarantine, which is an approach that Qatar has adopted, The Australian reported.

There are believed to be about 18,000 Australians stuck in various places around the world who are still struggling to come home due to a scarcity of flights during the pandemic.

In July, the Federal Government shrunk the number of international arrivals allowed in capital cities per week, which is now just 350 in Sydney, 500 each in Brisbane and Adelaide, and 525 in Perth. In Canberra and Darwin, limits on flights are decided by the jurisdictions on a case by case basis. There are no international flights into Hobart or Melbourne.

Australian man Ethan Hoffman, who has been trying to come home after being made redundant from his job in London, told the ABC he’s already been bumped off three flights and has few options left.

“(With) my flight on October 24, I didn’t actually get notified. I actually had to check myself, just on a whim,” Mr Hoffman said.

Thousands of Australians are still struggling to secure flights home.

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“As you can imagine, I’m looking at staying here for another potentially four months, with no appointment, not a lot really going on.

“And for the flights bunging people off to make room for people who are willing to pay $8500 for a business class seat … I spoke to the High Commission and I explained to them that that was the case and were they aware of it. Their recommendation was to ask my parents to get a loan for me.

“It’s taking advantage of people. It really is. It’s not good.”

The Qatar boss did, however, flag some good news for international travel more broadly, which has been crippled by an unprecedented downturn in demand due to lockdowns and travel bans to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The International Air Transport Association has forecast that international air traffic won’t return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024. Mr Al Baker thinks the industry will recover sooner than that.

“Travel is in our DNA,” he told News Breakfast. “I think that the travel will come back to 2019 levels hopefully in the next two to four years.”