Perth Airport has upped the ante in its long running dispute with Qantas.
It has given the airline an ultimatum: pay up or ship out.
It claims Qantas owes $20 million in aviation and rental fees since February.
Perth Airport CEO Kevin Brown says swift action is needed to resolve it or it will terminate several leases.
Brown said it issued violation notices for non-payment on some current leases and other rolling leases would not be renewed.
The airport gave Qantas a deadline over the weekend to sit down and discuss payment terms or it will rip up the leases.
It it makes good on its threat, it wouldn’t affect fly-in-fly-out services.
It amounts to an eviction notice, Qantas chairman Richard Goyder says.
The airline has been trying to defer payments due to Covid-19 cash-flow issues.
"Paying nothing while using all of the airport’s services is no longer an option," the airport said.
"We’re not trying to punish anybody, we’re just trying to address the basic issue around here that Qantas has paid nothing while using the airport services," Brown said.
"Our shareholders are quite simply eight million mums and dads and their super funds … it is not the eight million Australian mums and dads’ jobs to provide the working capital to Qantas."
The two parties have been at loggerheads for years over fees and the valuation of the airport’s Terminal 4.
