Airlines keep on flying, but they’re running on empty

Qantas has lost its crown as the biggest carrier of passengers in and out of Australia, with Qatar claiming the title in April.

A Qatar Airways aircraft arrives in Perth. Picture: AAP

Stringent travel restrictions banning Australians from leaving the country and mandatory quarantine for arrivals have failed to deter a host of airlines from flying down under.

Data compiled by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics for April showed that despite miserly passenger numbers, carriers such as Qatar, Cathay Pacific and Malaysia Airlines operated dozens of flights in and out of Australia.

Qatar even boosted capacity on flights to Perth, Sydney and Melbourne and added services to Brisbane to claim the largest slice of market share of any airline in April.

With Qantas and Virgin Australia reduced to operating a minimal network of government-subsidised flights, Qatar carried 44.5 per cent of all passengers, well clear of second-ranked Air New Zealand with 4.8 per cent.

However, the data showed the 119 inbound flights operated by Qatar had an average of just one in seven seats filled, while 120 outbound flights were two-thirds full.

University of Technology Sydney travel and tourism lecturer David Beirman said the relatively large number of services operated by airlines like Qatar and Cathay was probably more about “flying the flag” for their country than generating revenue.

“Those airlines, which are basically funded and supported by governments, can sustain a loss providing their governments are willing to provide for that,” Dr Beirman said.

“Airlines like Qantas and Virgin Australia don’t have that luxury even though the government is giving a fair bit of support to the airline industry.”

Across all 47 airlines that flew to Australia in April, passenger traffic was down 98 per cent to 69,476 people, from 3.5 million at the same time last year.

The total number of seats available on commercial flights was 235,348, far in excess of demand, which saw the overall seat utilisation plunge from 82.9 per cent in April 2019 to 29.5 per cent.

Many flights had considerably fewer seats in use on commercial services, particularly on inbound routes, and Virgin Australia’s flights from Hong Kong to bring home stranded Aussies averaged just two people on board (0.6 per cent seat utilisation).

Qantas’s best patronised flights were its repatriation services to and from Argentina, South Africa and Peru while Hong Kong and New Zealand flights carried just a handful of passengers.

Qantas has now suspended all international flights until August while Virgin Australia has halted overseas flights indefinitely.

Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison said ongoing services by other carriers were unlikely to steal market share from Qantas when it resumed flying.

“The Qantases of the world don’t really have to operate a whole lot of international. Domestic services are much more important,” Mr Harbison said.

The BITRE data showed 18 airlines suspended flights to Australia in April including American Airlines, Hawaiian Air and South African Airways.