Qatar airline snubs Melbourne to fly to Sydney

[Michael Mak]

From SMH
http://business.smh.com.au/business/...0306-8rfe.html

Qatar airline snubs Melbourne to fly to Sydney

Matt O'Sullivan

March 7, 2009
THE Middle Eastern airline Qatar Airways has been granted immediate access to fly to Sydney, after bypassing an original undertaking to fly to Melbourne.

It is a slap in the face for the Victorian Government and Melbourne Airport, which lobbied hard two years ago for Qatar Airways to be allowed to fly to Melbourne.

Changes in the air services agreement between Australia and Qatar mean the airline can begin seven flights a week to Sydney.

Under the previous agreement, Qatar Airways had been allowed to fly only to Brisbane, Melbourne or Perth. Services to Sydney could start only 12 months after an Australian airline or Qatar Airways began flying the Doha-Australia route.

The Herald understands that Qatar Airways approached the Rudd Government this year to seek access to Sydney. Industry insiders said the Government would have been keen to approve flights to Sydney to attract more foreign visitors.

Talks between the Transport Department and Qatar ended about a fortnight ago. A spokesman for the federal Transport Minister, Anthony Albanese, confirmed yesterday that Australia had concluded a new air services agreement with Qatar.

The Howard government announced in March 2007 that it would allow Qatar to operate daily flights to Melbourne and Brisbane. But Qatar has not taken up the option to fly the Kangaroo route between London and Australia via its base in Doha because, without the right to fly to Sydney, it was not commercially justifiable.

Emirates and Etihad Airways were also granted permission in 2007 to nearly double their flights to Australia by 2011. Victoria's Labor Government was one of the protagonists of the successful push in 2007 for the Howard government to grant Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad more access.
Meanwhile, Singapore Airlines has said the Government's aviation green paper portrays the future of international aviation policy in Australia as "ambiguous and protectionist".

It has called for liberalisation of international routes into Australia, criticising the country for not following other nations such as the US, New Zealand and Singapore in liberalising bilateral arrangements.

"Australia has been slow to recognise this trend and consequently remains relatively restrictive in its approach," it said.

It described as "meaningless" the policy of securing capacity ahead of demand without the Government putting a time-frame on decisions.

Qatar Airways declined to comment yesterday.