In January, I wrote how passengers on expensive Qatar Airways heading home from Doha to Adelaide were dumped in Melbourne Airport for six hours late at night – no food, drinks or lounges available. Some of the passengers were left sitting on the terminal floor. Qatar had no answers when I looked for compensation (I still believe it should be paid), but we now know why these passengers were duped. According to The Guardian, 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.

Qatar’s ghost flights – an open secret within the aviation sector – are “taking the piss” out of Australia’s strict aviation laws, industry sources say, and are occurring although the Albanese government rejecting the airline’s formal request to increase flights out of concern the extra capacity would go against Australia’s “national interest”. The Qatari-government-owned airline is currently limited to running 28 weekly services into Australia’s four major airports – Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth – allowing it to run once-daily return flights from Doha into each of these cities. However, under the existing bilateral agreement, there is no limit on how many services Qatar can run to non-major airports. In November 2022, Qatar Airways introduced a second daily, non-stop flight between Doha and Melbourne, with Adelaide registered as its destination and departure port in Australia.

Qatar’s QR988 arrives from Doha in Melbourne at 11.30 pm each night, and almost all passengers disembark. However, any passengers booked to stay on the plane for Adelaide’s leg must endure a six-hour layover in Tullamarine Airport’s international terminal before the flight departs at 5.35 am because of Adelaide Airport’s 11 pm to 6 am curfew. Qatar Airways is a premium product and expensive – particularly in business class. According to my wife, one of the unfortunate passengers dumped in Melbourne, “Adelaide passengers thinking they were flying home on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha were sleeping on the floor at Melbourne Airport last night (January 17)  for more than six hours. Flight QR998 might say Doha Adelaide – but it terminates in Melbourne. The Melbourne-Adelaide leg leaves six hours later and is designated a domestic flight. Rather than landing in Adelaide at 6.30 am,  passengers who had paid up to $10,000 for business class tickets were “dumped” at Melbourne Airport at 11.18 pm.  None of the lounges were open – they were left to their own devices by unsympathetic ground staff.

According to passenger Fiona McIntosh, I would have used Emirates out of Melbourne if I had known. I usually do. At least I would have arrived at a reasonable time in the morning for a connecting domestic flight to Adelaide. “This entire experience has been a bit of a nightmare, McIntosh said. I know travel agents will say I did not look at the booking details closely enough – but I don’t recall any mention of Melbourne….or if there was, it was in minimal type.  

Written by: Ian McIntosh

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