It’s in national interest to help Qantas pay for planes: King
Qantas’ investments in its fleet have been made at “a significant cost” and the aviation industry is still struggling to bring back capacity, meaning the government must prioritise protecting aviation jobs over its obligations to consumers, the transport minister says.
Catherine King stressed international carriers were being approved to fly to Australia but did not elaborate on her reasons for blocking Qatar Airways, instead saying Qantas had invested heavily in new fleet and jobs must be protected.
Transport Minister Catherine King says there are issues with carriers bringing back capacity. Alex Ellinghausen
“You’ve got our major airline, Qantas, [which] has just purchased brand new planes, that’s at a significant cost, and we’re going to see those [coming on stream]. They’re bigger planes, they’re quieter planes, they’re… better for the environment – so we’re going to start to see a lot of that,” Ms King told radio in Cairns.
Most of Qantas’ near-term fleet deliveries are for narrow body, smaller planes like the Airbus A220. It has ordered A350 aircraft, similar in size to its Boeing 787-900 Dreamliner, that will be specially fitted with extra fuel tanks to fly non-stop from Melbourne and Sydney to London and New York.
The so-called Project Sunrise won’t come on-stream until the end of 2025 and Qantas hopes to earn an additional $400 million a year by charging passengers a 30 per cent premium to fly point to point. Qatar is a major competitor on Qantas’ European routes and had been seeking approval to add capacity, which would lower airfares.
Ms King said bilateral agreements between governments were “actually a decision government makes about what’s in the national interest”, stressing that the decisions are always
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