Originally Posted by
Troo believer
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/f...08-p5e360.html
Quote from article
“Etihad and Emirates, which are the only other carriers that fly between Australia and Europe through the Middle East, are operating less than half the flights they are entitled to under their bilateral air service agreement with Australia.
Australia’s agreement with the United Arab Emirates stipulates that Emirates and Etihad may collectively operate 168 weekly services to Australia’s four biggest airports. They are only operating 70, which is just over 40 per cent of their total allotment.”
If this is correct then obviously it isn’t viable to operate anymore flights. The market just isn’t big enough. Why then does Qatar think it viable? They don’t and they don’t care because they don’t make money anyway but just want access at any cost. One could argue that competing with the other two airlines, Etihad and Emirates, is what they really want. Gouge out some market share no matter the cost and once again undermine those airlines like Qantas that compete with over 30 other airlines in the international market in and out of Australia.
I’d be highly surprised that Qatar operating more flights into and out of Australia would be loss making at the moment. I can only go off what I see at the international terminal - but the pax loads on those Qatar flights seem very strong.
I thought the issue for the like of Etihad and Emirates (more so EK than EY as EY is a shell of an airline that it once was) is access to airframes and that they simply don’t have the capacity to ramp up operations any further? Happy to be corrected on that though!