Qatar Airways exploiting legal loophole in Australia with 'Ghost Flights'

Qatar Airways has been flying near-empty and sometimes entirely empty large passenger jets every day between Melbourne and Adelaide to exploit a loophole allowing it to run extra flights to Australia, reports The Guardian.

The airline is currently limited to running 28 weekly services into Australia's four major airports, but there is no limit on how many services it can run to non-major airports.

In November 2022, Qatar Airways introduced a second daily, non-stop flight between Doha and Melbourne, but with Adelaide registered as its destination and departure port in Australia, according to the report.

This strategic manoeuvre enables them to fly the 354-seat Boeing 777-300ers between Melbourne and Adelaide without surpassing their allocated weekly flight quota for major airports.

"They were taking the piss out of the industry and the laws," an industry source said.

However, the catch is that the airline is not allowed to sell tickets for the leg between Melbourne and Adelaide to domestic passengers under Australian aviation laws. This means they can only carry a few international passengers who have opted for this specific route, rather than the separate non-stop flight between Adelaide and Doha that the airline also operates. As a result, the flights often operate with single-digit passenger numbers or, in some cases, no passengers at all.

The government has placed a condition on the timetable approval for the Melbourne-Adelaide flights that they must be available for sale for passengers and cargo arriving and departing from Adelaide.

The transport department now continuously monitors Qatar Airways sales to ensure "this condition is being met by the airline", a spokesperson for the transport minister, Catherine King, said.

The extra flights will be allowed to continue even after the Albanese government rejected Qatar Airways' request to fly an additional 21 services into major airports.

Qatar Airways declined to comment on the matter.