Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka has urged the government to rethink its decision.
“The decision to deny the application has been estimated to cost the tourism industry up to $788 million,” Hart said in his letter,obtained by this masthead. “This is significant revenue that the tourism industry will potentially miss out on at a time when they are rebuilding following the COVID-19 restrictions.”
Hart warned the government against making the bilateral air rights rejection a precedent for future applications from other governments.
“If this decision sets a precedent for consideration of future applications,being that requests for additional flights will not be granted,the loss to the tourism industry will be grave. The growth of Australian tourism is a function of inbound and outbound air capacity,and any limitations on
capacity stunt growth – not only through numbers of seats inbound but also through price competitiveness,” Hart said in the letter,also sent to Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell.
‘If this decision sets a precedent for consideration of future applications ... the loss to the tourism industry will be grave.’
John Hart,head of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry,in a letter to two government ministers
King’s office said it was unable to respond to the claims detailed in the letter as it never received it. But a spokesperson did say the chamber’s suggestion that the Qatar rebuff could set a bad precedent was “speculative and erroneous”.
“Requests for increased capacity from one country to another are decided on a case by case basis. This is always the case for requests for increased access to Australia,and for Australia’s requests for increased access to other countries,” King’s spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also doubled down on King’s previous explanation that the application for additional flights was not in Australia’s national interest.