Coalition blasts ‘no coherent reason’ for Labor’s Qatar flight refusal

afr.com:

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has put the Albanese government’s move to block more Qatar Airways flights to Australia on the political agenda, saying it had provided “no coherent reason” for the decision.

“I’ve got real questions over the Qatar decision. We’ve heard no coherent reason from the government. If you’ve been reading Joe Aston recently in [The Australian Financial Review], I mean, it is quite remarkable, and there’s been no decision given that is logical and additional capacity in the system and that competition will bring downward pressure on prices,” he said.

The carrier had requested permission to operate an additional 21 flights a week into Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, but was rejected last month. Those supporting the application – including tourism groups and airports – say more flights will bring down the high cost of international travel.

“Anyone flying to Europe or Asia or the Americas at the moment realises that the prices are astronomical, so more competition and more flights on those routes will help,” Mr Dutton said in an interview on Nine’s Today.

Qantas has claimed allowing more Qatar Airways flights would “distort” the local market. Wolter Peeters

His comments, the strongest intervention from the Coalition in the debate to date, came on the same day that Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka told her staff that there was no understandable reason why Qatar had been denied additional landing rights as she responded to suggestions from Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce that it would “distort” the market.

In an internal video issued to Virgin Australia staff on Friday, Ms Hrdlicka said that airfares were “just too high in Australia for international travel that’s long-haul in nature”