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Former columnist for The Australian Financial Review, Joe Aston, has said there is “no doubt” Qantas lobbied the federal government to refuse additional Qatar Airways flights last year but warned it could backfire by strengthening Virgin Australia.
Speaking to Australian Aviation for an upcoming podcast about his recent book, The Chairman’s Lounge: The Inside Story of How Qantas Sold Us Out, Aston said Qantas was “effectively the only external party that was opposed to the flights being granted”.
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“It’s not well understood that Qantas was acting at the behest of Emirates when they were lobbying against Qatar,” he said.
“Qantas and Emirates are joint venture partners to Europe and to the UK. The real threat [from] Qatar is to Emirates. They are very direct competitors. Their hub airports are only a couple of hundred kilometres away from each other.”
Aston’s comments come as the government faces renewed scrutiny over Transport Minister Catherine King’s decision to block Qatar’s expansion, with accusations from the Opposition that the Prime Minister or his office had intervened to protect Qantas.
Qatar had asked the government for an extra 21 flights per week into Australia’s four major airports of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, an application Minister King denied on “national interest” grounds.
“Qantas continually, not just with the Albanese Government, but with the Morrison Government, tried to block Qatar from increasing its flight to Australia, and it became a massive conflict within the Oneworld alliance,” Aston said.
“In fact, there was a point in time around 2022 where it was a very real prospect that Qatar Airways was going to successfully have Qantas thrown out of the Oneworld alliance, and American Airlines got heavily involved in stopping that from happening.
“There’s a lot of bad blood between Qatar, Qantas, Emirates – and the huge personalities and egos in the aviation industry globally is part of what makes it such an interesting and dramatic story.”
Qatar Airways last month announced its bid to take a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Australia in a deal that would see Virgin wet-lease planes from the Gulf carrier for new services to Doha.
As the flights would be operated under the banner of an Australian carrier, they could effectively partially circumvent the restrictions under Australia’s bilateral air service agreements with Qatar, allowing up to another 28 flights per week between Doha and the major gateways.
According to Aston, Qantas is “afraid” of what Virgin is capable of, particularly when foreign airlines invest in the carrier.
“Qantas lost a lot of money last decade fighting against Virgin, which was funded at the time by Air New Zealand, Singapore Airlines and Etihad, so Qatar Airways turning up with deep pockets on Virgin Australia’s equity register, and also then providing it with an international network and fleet of its own – that’s really a big threat for Qantas, particularly with its JV to Europe with Emirates,” he said.
“I think the thing that’s backfired is that Alan Joyce, I believe, made a miscalculation, not just going into business with Qatar. They’re both in the Oneworld alliance. Qatar is arguably less commercial than Emirates, so would have struck a far less tough bargain – and as I’ve explained in my book, and as Akbar Al Baker, the former CEO, sort of indicates, Qatar was desperate to do a deal with Qantas.
“If Qantas had switched partners from Emirates to Qatar, none of this would have happened. Virgin would have been still in partnership with Singapore Airlines, but it wouldn’t suddenly have a huge Gulf royal-family-sponsored shareholder providing it with the aircraft to fly to Europe.”
Virgin’s wet-leased flights to Doha would begin in June 2025 pending ACCC approval.
