Qatar calls for luxury quarantine option and relaxed entry restrictions

Qatar Airways’ CEO has urged the Australian government to relax its entry restrictions and fill “empty hotels” with returning travellers.

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker wants the Australian government to allow more travellers to return from overseas and quarantine in empty hotels. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Qatar Airways’ chief executive has urged the Australian government to relax its tough entry restrictions and fill “empty hotels” with returning travellers.

The airline has maintained more flights to Australia than any other carrier during the COVID-19 crisis, carrying thousands of Australians home in the process.

But strict passenger caps designed to limit the number of people going into hotel quarantine could force Qatar to pull services.

CEO Akbar Al Baker said travellers should have a choice of paying to quarantine in three, four or five-star hotels on their return, as occurs in Qatar.

He said the current caps, restricting airlines to between 25 and 60 passengers a flight, were unsustainable and severely disadvantaging those who wanted to come home to Australia.

“It is making things difficult, and it’s putting a great strain on the cost for us operate,” Mr Al Baker told The Australian.

“Australia is nearly 16 hours of flying from Doha so it’s a very expensive route but we are trying to mitigate by carrying cargo and maximising our yield (per seat) in order to cover the cost of the flight.”

Qatar has overtaken Qantas as Australia’s largest carrier of travellers in and out of the country this year, as a result of the airline’s continued operations to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Mr Al Baker said they saw the widespread suspension of flights by other airlines as an opportunity to continue serving customers and build up their band of loyal passengers.

But he warned it would be difficult to keep flying if the caps were maintained, and demand for airfreight fell, making the services unprofitable.

“We expect the Australian government to understand the high cost of operation and try to facilitate more Australians returning and going into quarantine, like what happens in my country,” he said.

“I am sure that there are hotels which are not fully occupied so the government could identify those and passengers could decide what sort of facility they wanted to go into for quarantine.

“My country is now open for a very large number of people to return on a daily basis. In addition we are also allowing businessmen to come and go into quarantine depending on the threat level of the country they are coming from — we categorise between green and red countries.”

When restrictions did ease and international flying resumed on a more regular basis, there would be significantly fewer airlines operating, Mr Al Baker predicted.

Although new operators could fill the void left by those carriers unable to survive the prolonged COVID-19 crisis, Mr Al Baker said it would be challenging to launch a new airline even in a market like Australia.

“Quite frankly speaking if someone came to me today to buy an airline I would refuse,” said Mr Al Baker. “Airlines are not a cheap business to get into.”

He also expected there would be very few if any A380s operating post-COVID, with most of the grounded superjumbos unlikely to return to service.

“I don’t think there will be any more demand for A380s. I agree entirely with the decision of my friend Alan (Joyce) to send his aeroplanes to the desert,” said Mr Al Baker.

“I don’t think there will be any need for A380s, or certainly not the number of A380s that were flying before (COVID-19). As a passenger it’s a nice aeroplane but as an operator it’s a terrible aeroplane. It is a very heavy aircraft, very high on fuel consumption.”

Qatar is cutting its workforce in response to the crisis.

“It’s made me sad with this big empire we built at Qatar Airways, as one of the top airlines employing thousands of young men and women, for us to start thinking of shrinking, laying off people, reducing our frequencies and network is very hurting to see,” he said. “But I am an optimist and I’m sure this will rebound and we will get back to our operational size in the not too distant future. Then we will give priority to people who we laid off to come back.”