Qatar officials ‘surprised and shocked’ over blocked flights

Qatar Airways’ top officials have told a parliamentary committee the airline business was “surprised and shocked” when its application to double its flights was rejected in July. Senior executives Matt Raos and Fathi Atti also alleged the airline only found out about the decision via the media, in a claim that was quickly rebutted by the federal government. Amid ongoing controversy over the strip-searching of Australian women at Doha Airport in 2020, Raos – the senior vice president of global sales at Qatar – assured the Senate inquiry into Australia’s aviation sector that the incident was isolated and wouldn’t be repeated. “Let me provide this assurance, this was very much a one-off incident, a very extreme incident. We’ve had nothing like it previously in our history, and we’re completely committed to ensuring nothing like this ever happens again,” Raos said on Wednesday morning. The Coalition launched the Senate inquiry earlier this month into Transport Minister Catherine King’s decision to block Qatar’s bid for more Australian flights. King has repeatedly defended the decision as routine and in the national interest, and has said the searches of the women were a factor. In his opening statement to the inquiry, Raos said the airline generated $3b in economic benefits for Australia and had continued to fly into Australia during the pandemic. “We were there when Australians faced tough times, when other airlines turned their back on Australia, Australia turned to us,” he said. Qatar Airways was one of the few airlines which continued flying at a loss to the country over COVID-19 to fly stranded residents into the country. Raos said Qatar Airways has “never stopped paying refunds” to Australian customers and had so far paid more than $600m in refunds to Australian passengers.<br/>