Tourism minister doesn’t deny supporting extra flights for Qatar Airlines

Tourism and Trade Minister Don Farrell has not denied he supported granting extra flights to Qatar Airways as a way of boosting Australia’s tourism sector, which has struggled to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Farrell has been reported as having privately backed giving Qatar Airways extra landing rights but has never commented publicly on the matter as the Albanese government comes under pressure to explain its reasons for blocking the airline, which will keep European ticket prices sky-high. The block benefits Qantas, which has reported super-profits partly as a result of the fares it can charge while demand outstrips the number of seats available on flights, and has been criticised by the travel industry. Asked by this masthead during an interview alongside his Kiwi counterpart from his winery in the Clare Valley, South Australia following talks focused on boosting trans-Tasman trade as a way of diversifying each other’s markets, Farrell said he did not have a say in the final determination. “The issue of extra flights from overseas is not my issue,” he said. “These are not issues that I determine. They’re issues for [Transport] Minister [Catherine] King, and she took into account a range of issues and made her decision at this point not to extend this to Qatar.” Farrell pointed to China’s decision to permit its citizens to travel in groups to 70 countries, including Australia, as a “huge boost” to the sector. “It will mean lots of extra flights from China to Australia,” he said. The latest statistics show international arrivals are still one-third below pre-pandemic levels, with huge falls in visitors from Asia, Europe and the United States. Visitor arrivals from north-east Asia were down 62% in the calendar year to May, driven by a 78% fall in arrivals from China alone.<br/>