Qatar targets Aussie market

The new boss of Qatar Airways has revealed The Gulf carrier is looking at growing its market in Australia, and is well advanced in plans to roll out a first-class cabin on aircraft other than its A380s.

Badr Mohammed Al Meer, who took over from long-serving CEO Akbar Al Baker last November, was speaking to American television network CNBC in his first major interview since stepping up.

Mr Al Meer also said Qatar had made a request for proposals to Boeing and Airbus, for a “big order” of new aircraft, and would delay the retirement of its A380 fleet by at least a few years. Asked where Qatar would put the additional capacity, Mr Al Meer said they were targeting certain markets.

“Currently today, the markets that we want to grow in are China, India, Australia, Japan, Korea and few other markets,” he said.

The planned growth in Australia was likely to fuel speculation Qatar Airways may be interested in buying Virgin Australia from US private equity owners Bain Capital.

Respected aviation commentator Peter Harbison raised that possibility at last week’s Destination Australia conference, telling tourism and travel industry leaders it was likely Bain would seek to capitalise on its investment in Virgin Australia through a trade sale.

“Not many companies want to buy into an airline, let alone an airline that’s in Virgin’s position at the moment, so the only companies really who are interested are other airlines, and particularly foreign airlines,” Mr Harbison said.

He said a potential sale to Qatar Airways would mean revisiting whether that was in the national interest.

Last year the Albanese government knocked back Qatar Airways’ application for 28 more flights a week into Australia because it was “not in the national interest”.

The decision created widespread outrage among travellers, airports and state governments and triggered a Senate inquiry which recommended that the ruling be overturned.