Virgin Says Government Is Designing Public Policy To Benefit Qantas

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Two Qatar Airways Boeing 777s in 2022 FIFA World Cup livery at Doha. (Image: Qatar Airways)

Virgin Australia has slammed statements by Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones indicating that blocking extra flights into Australia by Qatar Airways would protect Qantas’s sustainability.

The Assistant Treasurer, in comments to The Australian Financial Review, maintained the federal government’s line that knocking back Qatar’s request for additional air rights was “in the national interest”, and added that Qantas’s massive $2.5bn annual profit was “a good news story”.

“We can drive prices down but if we drive them down to a level where it’s actually unsustainable to run an airline, instead of having two carriers we will design our markets in a way which will make it unsustainable for the existing Australian-based carrier,” he said.

“We have a viable [airline] industry in Australia, and we always want to ensure we’re doing things to drive down the cost of airline tickets, but we want to ensure that they do that in a way that doesn’t destroy the industry over the medium and long term.”

Virgin Australia chief corporate affairs & sustainability officer, Christian Bennett, reaffirmed comments he made to a Senate inquiry in Adelaide last week that denying codeshare partner Qatar extra flights would give Qantas an advantage.

“Australian consumers are paying on average 50 per cent more today for international flights than they did in 2019. This is due to a lack of capacity. Denying Qatar additional flights keeps airfares between Australia and Europe unnecessarily higher than need be and denies the Australian tourism industry over $500 million in economic stimulus,” he said in a statement.

“Any suggestion that denying Qatar additional flights was designed to protect Qantas’ medium-to-long-term sustainability neglects the fact that blocking Qatar damages the domestic and international competitive position of Virgin Australia in favour of Qantas.

“Virgin Australia delivers great value and great choice to Australian consumers every day. It is the main source of competition to the Qantas Group, and that task is challenging enough without Qantas having public policy designed for its benefit.”

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Qantas has long opposed the expansion of Qatar’s air rights, but CEO Alan Joyce would not tell a Senate inquiry on cost of living on Monday whether he had personally lobbied the Prime Minister or Transport Minister on the subject.

“Any conversations I have with the Prime Minister or a minister I never divulge. I’ve kept that for all seven Prime Ministers and I have no intention of changing my approach,” he said.