Qatar Airways intends to almost double its flights to Australia by the middle of 2025, unlocking greater choice for travellers headed to Europe and the UK for the northern summer.

And those flights could go on sale as soon as December, pending a tentative green light from the Australian government’s consumer watchdog.

The additional flights are a cornerstone of a ‘proposed integrated alliance’ between Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia, which would also see the Gulf carrier take a 25% stake in Virgin.

A timetable detailed in the airlines’ joint submission to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) indicates how Qatar Airways would grow its Australian network.

From June 2025,

• Sydney would see two daily flights, up from the current one
• Melbourne would see three daily flights, up from the current two (one of which also flies to Adelaide)
• Brisbane would see two daily flights, up from the current one

Perth’s doubling to two daily flights would “follow in November 2025 due to limited availability of suitable widebody aircraft.”

It’s expected the new flights will rely heavily on Qatar Airways’ high-capacity Boeing 777 jets, which in turn will include free super-fast WiFi.

As previously reported, those flights will rely on Qatar Airways aircraft and crew leased to Virgin Australia and operating under a native VA flight number, although they will also carry a QR codeshare and for all intents and purposes be Qatar Airways flights.

The ACCC plans to issue an “interim authorisation” in November 2024, with a “draft determination” in January/February 2025 and a “final determination” in March 2025. Qantas has already indicated it will not oppose the Qatar-Virgin tie-up.

Virgin and Qatar are pushing for the ACCC to make a favourable interim ruling “by the end of November 2024 to allow sufficient lead time for Virgin Australia to commence flying its new Australia–Doha services by June 2025.”

This includes the necessary runway “to  sufficiently market and sell those services including having the appropriate supporting operational, technical and commercial structures in place.”

The airlines note “it is essential that the Applicants are able to include flights in the published schedule for the IATA Northern Summer Season.”

“The Applicants are expected to finalise their schedule for the IATA Northern Summer 2025 Season by December 2024, with forward selling to also commence by December 2024.”

“Passengers generally purchase long haul flights well in advance, so a minimum of 6 months is required before the launch of services to maximise marketing and sales opportunities and make those first flights financially sustainable.”

More flights for the mid-year travel season

The mid-2025 window of opportunity not only encompasses the high-demand “mid-June to mid-September peak travel periods” but also “key events like the commencement of the 2025 British and Irish Lions (rugby) tour” – for which Qatar Airways is the official airline partner – “which will see 40,000+ spectators visiting Australia for 9 games over 6 weeks in late June to early August 2025.” 

Virgin argues that if it is forced to delay “the launch and forward selling” of these flights, “it will lose the opportunity to make the most of these high seasonal demand windows to attract customers.”

“If the Applicants cannot commence flying by June 2025, it would not be financially viable to launch the first flight until December 2025 to coincide with the high-demand mid-December to mid-January peak of 2025/2026.”

However, if June 2025 see a go-ahead for those new VA/QR flights, this will also see Virgin Australia cut back its long-standing partnerships with Etihad Airways and Singapore Airlines.

As previously reported by Executive Traveller, Etihad Airways would be removed from Virgin’s roster of partner airlines, while codeshare flights on Singapore Airlines would be restricted to Asia and India, while Qatar Airways would own the skies for VA across Europe, the UK and Africa.

Read more: Virgin’s Etihad, SQ partnerships hit by Qatar Airways deal