Qatar Airways gets go-ahead for more Australian flights

Qatar Airways will launch additional daily flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane from mid-2025, unlocking greater choice for travellers headed to Europe and the UK for the northern summer.

Tickets are expected to go on sale within weeks, after the Australian government’s competition  watchdog granted interim authorisation for Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways to co-operate on international flights as part of Qatar’s 25% equity investment in ­Virgin.

This effectively means Virgin will resume long-range flying for the first time since early 2020 – but this time headed west to Doha, rather than east to Los Angeles, and using aircraft and crew supplied by Qatar Airways.

• Sydney-Doha will see two daily flights, up from the current one flight per day
• Melbourne-Doha will have three daily flights, up from the current two (one of which also flies to Adelaide)
• Brisbane-Doha will also host two daily flights, up from the current one

Perth will follow with two daily flights from November 2025, due to limited availability of suitable long-range aircraft.

Virgin will officially operate the flights 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 flights will dovetail into Qatar Airways’ network of more than 100 destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

”We consider that granting interim authorisation now will allow Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia the lead time to undertake the necessary planning discussions, marketing, selling and system alignment in preparation for Virgin Australia to commence flying the new services by June 2025,” ACCC Deputy Chair Keogh said

The ACCC-approved timeframe also ties into the 2025 British and Irish Lions rugby tour – for which Qatar Airways is the official airline partner – which is expected to see over 40,000 spectators visiting Australia for nine games spread across late June to early August 2025.

The additional flights between Australia and Qatar's Doha hub will be operated by Virgin Australia but rely on QR jets and crew.

The new flights could rely heavily on Qatar Airways’ high-capacity Boeing 777 jets, which in turn will include free super-fast WiFi using Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite network.

However, a side effect of the VA/QR tie-up will see Etihad Airways end its long-standing partnership with Virgin Australia from June 1, 2025.

The proposal for Qatar Airways to take a 25% stake in Virgin Australia has yet to be approved by the Foreign Investment Review Board, and on that basis the ACCC made it clear this interim authorisation was subject to final regulatory approvals being obtained.

In the event that approval was not granted, travellers who booked the new flights would be protected by a “court-enforceable undertaking.”

“Affected customers will be given the option of a refund or re-accommodation on a suitable alternative flight at no additional charge and would not be out of pocket for any reasonably foreseeable costs if these proposed new services ultimately don’t get approved,” the ACCC’s Keogh said.

“Having this that protects customers was important to our decision to allow Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways to start selling tickets now.”

Virgin Australia chief strategy and transformation officer Alistair Hartley welcomed the ACCC’s backing as “an important and positive step in the regulatory process.”

Qatar Airways’ chief commercial officer Thierry Antinori said “we will continue working closely with Virgin Australia to progress the remaining regulatory approvals.”