Qantas’ perplexing reason for blocking Qatar Airways’ bid for more flights down under

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has weighed into the controversy over Qatar Airways’ failed request for more flights into Australia.

Qatar Airways has been blocked from increasing flights into Australia.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce has provided a baffling explanation for his airline’s objection to Qatar Airways’ request to increase flights into Australia, saying they would “distort the market”.

The federal government in July knocked back Qatar’s application for more traffic rights, following Qantas’ objection.

The decision confounded the tourism and travel industry which continued to call for more international flights into Australia to aid with the post-Covid recovery.

Transport Minister Catherine King told parliament this month that the government considered the extra 28 flights a week were “not in the national interest” but refused to elaborate.

On Thursday, Mr Joyce only added to the confusion with a bizarre explanation for Qantas’ opposition to its Oneworld partner’s bid for more capacity.

“What we said when it came to Qatar … was there shouldn’t be rights granted when there’s a huge amount of capacity being put back into the market,” Mr Joyce said in Sydney.

“Doubling those rights (for Qatar) could actually distort the market and that’s proven to be correct because capacity has essentially doubled in that time.

“From July 1 this year to June 30, 6.4 million seats will be added to international capacity.”

He said the government “dictated rights to countries and took in a lot of considerations”.

“There’s a lot of reasons the government would consider granting or not granting rights,” Mr Joyce said.

An industry insider told The Australian that Qatar’s application for more flights had been signed off by the relevant government departments but was killed by federal cabinet.

“That’s the influence Alan Joyce has,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

It has also been alleged Mr Joyce has a personal grudge against Qatar Airways’ chief executive, Akbar Al Baker, because the pair previously clashed over air rights in 2018.

At the time, Mr Al Baker threatened to walk away from the Oneworld alliance Qatar shared with Qantas and Mr Joyce said it should leave if it was no longer working for it.

Qatar entered a partnership with Virgin Australia last year, but has continued to be a member of Oneworld.