Qatar Airways’ Domestic Australia “Ghost” Flights

It kind of gets at the absurdity of some international air services agreements when there are empty flights in Australia.

Qatar Airways wants to grow in Australia, but can’t

There are a lot of people looking to travel between Australia and Europe. The bilateral air services agreements in place restrict the growth of Gulf carriers.

The current air services agreement between the two countries allows for a total of 28 weekly flights between the two countries. There are no restrictions on flights to other Australian airports.

Since no Australia airlines want to fly to Qatar, this is a one-sided deal.

Qantas is trying to block the growth ofQatar Airways in Australia because of the current air services agreement between the two countries. Qantas executives argue that a non-government owned carrier can't compete in Australia due to the post-coronaviruses. Qantas executives have never argued about partner Emirates.

Australian Frequent Flyer states that while negotiations are ongoing, Qatar Airways has found a way to grow in Australia without violating rules. Some empty flights are involved.

How Qatar Airways is circumventing Australia’s restrictions

Due to the fact that the airline is already operating once daily service to each airport, it's no longer possible for them to offer service to other airports.

A loophole can be found here. The air services agreement doesn't restrict the addition of flights to other destinations in Australia as long as they are done by the same airline.

The airlines are allowed to have those flights through other airports. A one-stop flight from Doha toAdelaide is also being operated by the airline. If passengers want, they can book this flight only between the two cities.

This allows for a second daily flight if the primary focus of the airline is serving the Doha toMELBOURNE market. The flight is timed so that you won't want to take it if you're going toAdelaide. Here's the schedule right now.

The Doha to Melbourne flight arrives at 11:20PM and the Melbourne toAdelaide flight arrives at 11:30AM.

The Adelaide to Melbourne flight left at 12:55PM and arrived at 1:45PM.

No one in their right mind will book an itinerary that1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 is1-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-65561-6556 Since this is a wholly domestic flight, Qatar Airways can only sell seats on the sector betweenAdelaide andMELBOURNE.

In other words, you can expect that flight to be empty, and that it will only be used to serve the Doha to Melbourne market.

• On the one hand, it’s highly wasteful to operate a totally empty flight, just to be able to add service to a market you actually want to fly to
• On the other hand, this seems to technically be allowed based on the existing air services agreement, so maybe future agreements should be negotiated in a way so that these loopholes don’t exist

Bottom line

A new service is being added by the airline in Australia. The airline is maxed out on how many flights it can operate to Australia's four largest airports so it is adding service toAdelaide with a stop inMELBOURNE The air services agreement allows for double service to be provided by the airline.

What do you think about the strategy of the airline?