MELBOURNE – Competition on the kangaroo route will turn up a notch or two next month when Qatar Airways launches services from Melbourne.
Qatar will offer three weekly flights to Doha from December 6 going to daily flights from January, using its B777-200s. Qatar services from Sydney are expected early 2010.
Qatar’s entry into Australia comes at a time when Etihad and Emirates are lobbying the federal government to increase their quota of flights to Australia, a move which would further challenge Qantas and Singapore Airlines on the kangaroo route.
Bilateral air rights between the Australian and United Arab Emirates governments will be discussed in February.
Etihad is using 21 of the 28 slots a week it had previously been allocated. It wants to increase weekly flights to Sydney from 11 to a minimum of 14, services to Melbourne from seven to 14, and those to Brisbane from three to seven.
It also intends to launch services to Perth.
The Age reported that Qantas recently claimed that the three Middle Eastern airlines will operate almost 50 per cent of first and business-class seats on the route by 2012.
It emphasised that the airlines had been ”going against this global trend” of cutting flights in the midst of a severe downturn.
Emirates spokesman, Andrew Parker, confirmed the airline was seeking a ”reasonable” increase in the number of flights to Australia from its cap of 84 a week by 2011.
In the past 13 years Emirates has increased services to Australia from just three a week to 70.
