King says decision to block Qatar flights wasn’t to protect Qantas
Transport Minister Catherine King says her decision to block Qatar Airways expanding its services into Australia’s four biggest airports was not to protect Qantas, despite earlier claims she had done so to save local aviation jobs and to assist the national carrier’s recovery from the pandemic.
Ms King told The Australian Financial Review Infrastructure Summit she “very clearly did not take the commercial interests of either Qantas or Virgin into consideration when I was making that decision”.
Transport Minister Catherine King says the decision to block more flights from Qatar was in the national interest. Michael Quelch
On Tuesday, Ms King suggested the decision was made to ensure that Australia has the capacity to rescue citizens in times of strife, even though Qatar Airways worked alongside Virgin and delivered the first rescue mission from Tel Aviv to Sydney last month. Qantas also rescued citizens flying its own plane into Tel Aviv before it was deemed too dangerous to do so,
“Do we as a nation need to make sure we have in times of emergency, we’ve had to use that recently, with evacuating people out of both Israel and out of Gaza,” Ms King asked in explaining the national interest.
“What do we need as a nation to be able to hold on to what is happening in terms of competition overall? They are some of the things I took into consideration when we were asked for basically an unprecedented amount of access by Qatar Airways into our aviation market.”
The “unprecedented amount of access” described by Ms King would have left Qatar Airways with 28 flights a week into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. Its rivals, Qantas’ partner Emirates and Etihad Airways, have the right to fly 168 flights a week, but have been using only half of their rights.
The lower levels of use have led to record high airfares and a much more muted recovery in international tourists, spurring a backlash from the hotel and tourism lobby who say the decision to block Qatar defies logic.
While a formal review was not undertaken into the decision to reject Qatar’s bid for more access, the airline did ask for a reason why its application was rejected.
Qatar could apply again
Ms King did not expand on the reasons – saying engagement with the airline was done by her department – but said Qatar could apply in the future to increase its flights into Australia.
“They will, I’m sure, request access at some point again, and I will again consider that, and I’ll take the national interest into account,” she said.
When asked whether she will make a different decision next time, Ms King replied, “I will take the national interest into account, as I always do”.
The Summit also heard from the new Western Sydney International Airport, which will be able to operate with no curfew when it opens in 2026.
Sydney Airport, the country’s largest, says the new, government-owned WSIA will get unfair advantages when it starts operating. Sydney Airport has asked Ms King to review flight paths to allow it access to the same continuous descent pathways that help to lower emissions and noise.
Western Sydney advantage
WSIA chief executive Simon Hickey said operating 24-hours would give the airport more capacity and allow more freight to arrive via air rather than sea. And it would be a big competitive advantage, he said.
“Absolutely. Sydney is unique in terms of the size of the city, the global nature of being the largest economy that we have here, not having a 24/7 airport. That does help with a number of things including freight and business connectivity,” Mr Hickey said.
“If you’re in Melbourne and you want to have dinner you’ll be able to get back to Sydney as an example. That connectivity has been missing, and it’s certainly something that is required in Sydney.”
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