Qatar could fly 28 more Doha services with Virgin deal

Qatar Airways aircraft and crew could fly up to 28 extra services per week from Australia to Doha as part of its proposed deal to acquire 25% of Virgin, Australian Aviation can reveal. The revelation comes just over a year after Transport Minister Catherine King controversially blocked the expansion of Qatar flights into major Australian airports. Qatar had asked the government for an extra 21 flights per week. The deal to take a stake in Virgin effectively circumvents the need to require government approval because the flights would be technically serviced by domestic carrier Virgin Australia, which would be wet-leasing the aircraft and crew from the overseas airline. Under Australia’s bilateral air service agreements with Qatar, Qatari carriers are permitted up to 28 flights per week into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth; as the agreement is reciprocal, Australian carriers such as Virgin are also permitted 28 flights per week from these airports to Doha. Additionally, the agreements allow up to seven extra flights per week to the four major airports “provided such services operate via or beyond to a point in Australia other than Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney”, and unrestricted flights non-stop to airports other than those four. No Australian airlines currently operate flights from Australia to Doha, and any bid to use this capacity would be subject to approval from the International Air Services Commission (IASC); there may also be labour considerations around the use of Qatari crews under a wet-lease deal.<br/>