Qatar Airways will buy a 25 per cent stake in Virgin Australia after an agreement was reached between the Australian airline’s owner, Bain Capital, and the Gulf carrier.

The deal will need approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

“This partnership brings the missing piece to Virgin Australia’s longer-term strategy …,” said Jayne Hrdlicka, the airline’s chief executive.

“It will further strengthen Virgin Australia’s ability to compete over the long term, which will inevitably translate into more choice and even better value airfares for consumers.”

Virgin Australia plans to launch flights from Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney to Doha, which will be subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

If approved, the deal between the two airlines would enable Virgin’s “measured entry” into long-haul international flying by mid-2025.

The flights would be provided under a “wet lease” agreement with Qatar, which describes when an airline loans an aircraft to another carrier to temporarily increase capacity.

Qatar Airways was last year blocked by the Albanese government from a request to fly additional services into Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

The airline had applied to run an extra 21 flights into Australia a week — seven each to the three major capital cities — but it was rejected by the government.

The Coalition, tourism sector and business groups were critical of the decision, which the government repeatedly defended as being made in the public interest.

Ms Hrdlicka said Virgin’s proposed long-haul services were expected to generate $3 billion to the Australian economy through incremental visitor flows over the next five years.

“We are really pleased to be announcing our proposed strategic investment in Virgin Australia … the alignment of our two airlines is significant, the relationships are deep,” Qatar Airways Group chief executive Badr Mohammed Al-Meer said in a statement.

Virgin Australia was one of the first major airlines in the world to go bust during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel bans were enacted.

It went into voluntary administration one month after the federal government closed Australia’s borders in March 2020.

But it was bought by American private investment firm Bain Capital and came out of administration in November that same year.

Since then, Virgin Australia has cut back the number of international routes it operates.

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