Qatar Airways has been flying near-empty, and sometimes entirely empty large passenger jets every day between Melbourne and Adelaide to exploit a loophole allowing it to run extra flights to Australia.
By flying the 354-seater Boeing 777-300ers between Melbourne and Adelaide, it means the airline does not exceed the 28 weekly services into major airports it is allowed to operate under the existing bilateral agreement.
Patronage is so low on both Melbourne-Adelaide legs of these trips they are considered ghost flights – the term for a usually loss-making service operated with zero passengers or fewer than 10% capacity in order to meet an obligation.
While flights with a secondary port can encourage global airlines to better serve smaller cities in Australia, the scheduling of QR988 and QR989 have led to a view within the aviation sector that they are primarily functioning as second daily Melbourne services, multiple sources said.
The extra flights will be allowed to continue even after the Albanese government rejected Qatar Airways’ push to fly an additional 21 services into major airports – something supported by most in the aviation and tourism industries as well as state premiers – after “taking into account all national interest considerations”.
Others including Australian women suing Qatar Airways for damages over forced invasive bodily examinations, and Qantas, were opposed to the greater air rights for the airline.