Australia gives interim approval for Virgin-Qatar Airways alliance
12:54 am Friday, November 29th, 2024
(Reuters) – Australia’s competition watchdog said on Friday it had given its interim approval for Virgin Australia [IPO-VIR.AX] to start selling Qatar Airways-operated flights between Doha and four capital cities in Australia.
The tie-up will give Qatar Airways, which plans to buy a 25% stake in Virgin Australia from U.S. private equity firm Bain Capital, a backdoor channel to increase flights into Australia after the Albanese government denied such requests last year.
The government still needs to sign off on the partnership.
Qantas Airways, which has a 65% market share in Australia, has been fighting to keep Qatar away from the country. The denial last year raised questions about the government’s relationship with Qantas, which has a partnership with Dubai-based Emirates, a rival of Qatar Airways.
Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia can start marketing and selling 28 weekly scheduled return flights between Doha and Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney in June next year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a statement.
Flights from Perth are scheduled to start in November.
The ACCC’s interim authorisation ensures that customers who have pre-booked these flights would be protected, even if the final regulatory approval is not granted.
Virgin Australia will use Qatar Airways’ craft and crew to operate the service under a wet-lease arrangement.
Virgin Australia, Qantas and Qatar Airways did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
(This story has been corrected throughout to say ACCC’s interim approval was for the Virgin-Qatar alliance, not for Qatar to buy a 25% stake in Virgin)
(Reporting by Aaditya Govind Rao and Shivangi Lahiri in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D’Souza)
