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Virgin Australia’s long-standing codeshare partnership with Etihad would be dropped if Qatar Airways takes a 25 per cent stake in the airline, Australian Aviation can reveal.
The move would cut Abu Dhabi-based Etihad out entirely, leaving it without any Australian codeshare partners, as Qantas codeshares with rival Emirates.
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The news is likely to have significant ramifications for long-haul travel into Australia, given the tie-up with Virgin is a major incentive for customers to book travel with Etihad. Abu Dhabi itself offers onward connections to more than 130 destinations.
The revelation was quietly included in Virgin’s application to the ACCC to greenlight the deal with Qatar, which would also see Qatar operate Virgin flights to Doha in a wet-lease arrangement. The removal was then subsequently confirmed to Australian Aviation on Thursday afternoon.
“Qatar Airways will become Virgin Australia’s exclusive interline, codeshare and loyalty partner headquartered in the Middle East or Türkiye (excluding interline for passenger re-accommodation purposes),” the application reads, as spotted by aviation blog Analytic Flying.
“Virgin Australia will not codeshare on the international flights of other airlines to, from or within the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, and will not acquire or supply any loyalty point accrual services or high value guest services, e.g. benefits such as lounge access provided to Gold members and above, with any airline headquartered in Africa or Europe.
“Virgin Australia will become Qatar Airways’ exclusive interline, codeshare and loyalty partner headquartered in Australia (although Qatar Airways may continue its interline and loyalty arrangements with Qantas to the extent required by its Oneworld membership) and Qatar Airways will not codeshare on the international flights of other airlines to or from Australia.”
The deal would not preclude either Virgin or Qatar from joining an airline alliance and upholding its membership obligations. While Qatar is a member of Oneworld, Virgin is not currently a member of any alliance.
In the application, Virgin and Qatar have asked the competition watchdog to approve the deal by next month so tickets can be quickly put on sale for the peak northern summer period in June 2025.
The agreement will specifically see Virgin sell wet-leased services operated by Qatar Airways from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Doha beginning in mid-2025, with potential capacity for up to 28 return Doha flights per week from these major airports under bilateral air service agreements (ASAs).
It will be Virgin’s first attempt to fly wide-body international flights since emerging from administration and switching its fleet to predominantly 737s. While neither Virgin nor Qatar have revealed which aircraft will be involved, the application notes that there will be 354 seats per flight, pointing to Qatar’s 777-300ER fleet.
The removal of Etihad would also represent a turnaround from before Virgin’s administration when Etihad itself held a stake in the airline.
Etihad has been contacted for comment.
