Despite regulations and industry standards, Qatar Airways seems to have found a questionable workaround in its operations, leaving many questioning the airline’s integrity and practices—ghost flights.
Manipulating Australian Aviation Laws
According to reports, it’s whispered that Qatar Airways has been taking unfair advantage of certain laxities in Australian regulations. The Qatari government-owned airline is supposed to stick to 28 weekly services to Australia’s premier airports: Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth. However, using a crafty interpretation of the existing bilateral agreement, they’ve ramped up their operations at non-major airports.
In a move that many deem controversial, Qatar Airways launched another daily, non-stop flight between Doha and Melbourne in November 2022. Intriguingly, they listed Adelaide as both the landing and take-off point in Australia, essentially skirting the boundaries of the existing bilateral agreement.
Yet, due to Australian aviation regulations, they can’t sell tickets for the Melbourne-Adelaide leg to local passengers. They’ve circumvented this by marketing this route to international passengers heading to Doha. This raises the question: Is Qatar Airways truly serving its passengers or merely manipulating laws to its advantage?
Ghost Flights
“Ghost flights” typically operate with almost no passengers, often to satisfy specific administrative criteria. Qatar’s QR988, which travels from Doha to Melbourne, witnesses a mysterious trend: nearly all its passengers leave the plane once it lands. Those few who remain onboard for the journey to Adelaide have a suspiciously lengthy six-hour wait at the Tullamarine airport’s international terminal, a result of the Adelaide airport’s operating hours.
Comparatively, QR989 departs Adelaide and arrives in Melbourne in 90 minutes. However, this route’s patronage remains consistently low, suggesting that this convoluted routing might be more about sidestepping regulations than serving potential passengers.
While Qatar Airways does offer a separate direct flight between Doha and Adelaide, the nature of their ghost flights casts a shadow over even their legitimate services.
Industry Distrust Grows
While having secondary port flights could be beneficial, the motive behind Qatar Airways’ services seems more self-serving than passenger-oriented. Many believe that they are more interested in sneaking in a second daily service to Melbourne than genuinely serving the smaller cities.
When they initiated these questionable services, Qatar Airways didn’t even open bookings for the Melbourne-Adelaide segment for the first few weeks. According to The Guardian, one industry insider critically noted, “The whole aim is to reach Melbourne. They weren’t even offering tickets to Adelaide initially.”
The Department of Infrastructure and Transport, aiming to curb such tactics, set a new mandate for the airline, demanding transparency in their bookings. Yet skepticism remains about whether Qatar Airways can be trusted to maintain compliance.
Despite all their machinations, the Albanese government recently denied the airline’s request to add 21 more services to major airports. This rejection seems like a clear message to Qatar Airways, suggesting that their dubious practices haven’t gone unnoticed.
Source: The Guardian
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