Virgin Australia’s outgoing boss Jayne Hrdlicka says the airline would not be in a position to deliver long-haul services between Australia and Europe for at least the next six years without Qatar Airway’s support.
It would be reckless for Treasurer Jim Chalmers to even try to deny Qatar’s application to buy a 25 per cent stake in Virgin.
Virgin says a 25 per cent stake would allow it to launch services to Doha,more than a year after Qatar Airways was rejected from doubling its flights to Australia.
The government’s aviation white paper will review why more than 80 per cent of government bookings are made with one airline.
The new charter of rights for airline customers is just one of 56 proposed reforms that will govern the nation’s aviation sector for decades to come.
The government has failed to fulfil the No.1 wish of just about every regular and occasional flyer.
Passengers forced to wait for non-existent flights or told their plane is not arriving have been promised their own charter of rights under a government plan.
EY partner Sam Freeman says he’s received a lot of early interest in Rex and is preparing to kick off the sales process as soon as next week.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the regional routes that Rex provides must continue,but its decision to move into capital city services had been misguided.
The chat in aviation circles is that the government is expected to take part-ownership of Rex conditional on the airline shrinking back to its regional roots.
The airline has cancelled all flights between major airports after halting its domestic 737 services,prompting Virgin and Qantas to offer free rebooking for Rex customers.