Tourism leaders incensed by minister’s claim Qatar Airways flights are not in national interest

Claims it would not be in the ‘national interest’ to allow Qatar Airways to fly more often into Australia have triggered an angry outburst from tourism leaders.

The federal Transport Minister’s claim that additional flights by Qatar Airways into Australia would “not be in the national interest” has triggered a new wave of outrage among tourism operators.

After weeks of refusing to explain why Qatar Airways’ application for 21 more flights a week into the country was rejected by the government, Catherine King told federal parliament the services were not in the national interest.

“In determining what our national interest is, we have to consider a broad range of factors, and it was not just one factor that led to this particular decision,” Ms King said in response to a question from Liberal former infrastructure minister Paul Fletcher.

“The government has determined that agreeing to the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority’s request for additional services is not in our national interest, and we will always consider the need to

ensure that there are long-term well-paid secure jobs for Australians in the aviation sector when we are making this decision.”

Transport Minister Catherine King says it would not be in the national interest for Qatar Airways to increase flights into Australia.

The answer was met with confusion and derision by those in the tourism industry, who have been calling for more international flights into Australia to stimulate the visitor economy.

Former Tourism Australia managing director John O’Sullivan, now chief executive of the Experience Co, said the minister’s response was “incredibly concerning and frustrating” for the industry.

“How increasing competition in a sector charging record high prices and making record profits can be seen as ‘not in the national interest’ is farcical,” Mr O’Sullivan wrote on his LinkedIn page.

“This decision combined with the proposals to change the visa conditions for working holiday-makers should be a major concern for all of us in the industry.”

His concerns were met with a flood of support from others, including Ovolo Hotels’ director of marketing Stephen Howard, Voyages Indigenous Tourism chief Matt Cameron-Smith and Coral Expeditions commercial director Jeff Gillies.

The rejection of more Qatar Airways flights into Australia has angered tourism operators.

Aviation operations consultant Roger Lindeman said it was a shortsighted decision to block Qatar Airways from increasing flights.

“How Minister King can claim that the approval of Qatar’s application would cost jobs is just laughable,” Mr Lindeman said.

“Anyone could see that bringing in around 150,000 more visitors a year would drive jobs in regions and cities and not cost jobs.”

He said the upshot would be that Qatar would send the planes intended for Australian routes to Europe, the US, Asia and Africa.

“This is a scandalous blow to Australian tourism and to Australians struggling to pay high overseas travel fares due to post-Covid reduced capacity,” Mr Lindeman said.

Mr Cameron-Smith added it was “completely flawed logic” while Traveldream.com founder Paul Mercuri said it “stunk to high heaven”.

Qatar Airways has to date refused to comment on the decision, which was only formally relayed to the airline several days after it was reported by the Australian media.

The decision was revealed in a letter from Ms King to the five women taking legal action against Qatar Airways over their alleged indecent treatment at Hamad International Airport.

The women had written to Ms King asking her to oppose more bilateral air rights for Qatar Airways.

Qantas also made a submission to the government objecting to a flight increase for Qatar Airways, claiming it would cost Australian jobs.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic Qatar Airways continued to operate to Australia to maintain critical freight channels, despite being restricted to very few passengers.

It’s understood Austrade and Tourism Australia were both in favour of the capacity boost.