Qatar Airways CEO defends Australian expansion ambitions

Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker has defended his company’s bid to expand its services in Australia, as Sky News Australia recently revealed Qantas was lobbying the government to block Qatar's efforts to add extra flights.

“We connected Australian people to the world during the most difficult period in aviation history,” he told Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood.

“We continued uninterrupted at the peak of the COVID, serving the three main points in Australia, which is Sydney, Perth and Melbourne.

“We kept Australian people connected. We made sure, at huge losses, that we continued serving the Australian people and the Australian trade during this difficult period.”

Mr Al Baker said Qantas “completely stopped operating out of Australia, whilst we, at huge losses, continued”.

“What is happening and why we are being stifled from getting additional rights into Australia is the largest operator in Australia has cut its flights to 50 per cent of pre-COVID levels,” he said.

[TheRealBobSmith.]

Better customer service from Qatar Airways . And they don't do woke crap.

[raymondleongdiva]

It's obvious qantas does not want to reduce her pricing and is being challenged by Qatar with better product and pricing...

[lisasutherland-fraser]

Qantas continually being so fearful of competition.

[howardlee]

Good for consumer to have more choices. Qantas needs to have competition so they can improve

[Itagd]

Screw qantas il always fly Qatar when possible

[Prognosis__]

High prices is because of high cost of jet fuel having low supplies. WEF doesn’t want people like us to fly

[ricky]

I've never used Qantas for overseas flight other airlines much cheaper and better service

[aspitofmud]

Seems to be more pro Australian than Australian government.
Money talks.

[tomjones]

Alan Joyce must be having temper tantrums and meltdowns lol 😂 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣

[MrDogsledder]

Because of the Qantas CEO and his Christophobic bigotry I won't fly Qantas.
Do you think I'd rather fly qutar? What do you reckon?

[ivansultanoff]

Forget covid crap and get on with life and travel -hell with WEF

[notafreespeechplatform]

All of a sudden, as of on cue, the issue of Qatar and human rights resurfaced as it wants to expand it's market in Australia. 🤔

[troyberndt]

100% support Qatar Airways everything H.E. said was spot on, they should be given these extra traffic rights simply on the basis of their support during the pandemic. Well done Qatar Airways

[OzSafe]

I’d like to see Qatar recognise the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah when landing.

[victoriolontoc]

Qatar Airways is one of the best Airline very considerate.

[positivepawpaw]

ALBOZO WILL HAVE ANOTHER JET FOR HIS POINTLESS WORLD TOURS

[amd]

I thoroughly support this proposal. Qatar provide a superior service. I was stranded in London in January this year. I booked a Qantas return flight to Australia which was re-scheduled 3 times by Qantas. On one occasion I spent almost 12 hours yes, 12 hours on the phone waiting to speak to a Qantas representative in an overseas call centre. The calls cut out after 2 hours of waiting. In the end, Qantas put me on a Qatar flight back home from London because they couldn’t get me home! I spent an extra 2 weeks in London. I vowed then that I’ll never fly Qantas again, the level of service was disgusting. Thank you Qatar!

[BaljinderSINGH-pcrt]

Qantas should add more flights from bne /syd/mel to Singapore, this will boost Qantas economy

[spikeprotein]

A Qantas accident would strengthen Qatar’s case - just saying.

[spikeprotein]

Qatar suffered huge losses in Syria, and more coming.