A photo shows a Qatar Airways Airbus A350 parked outside the Qatar Airways maintenance hangar in Doha, Qatar, June 20, 2022. Photographed on June 20, 2022. Reuters/Imad Creidi/File Photo Obtaining license rights
SYDNEY, Sept 7 (Reuters) – The Australian government has cited Qatar Airways’ decision this year to stop selling additional tickets to Australia over the strip searches of women at Qatar’s main airport in 2020. It was announced that Japan was a contributing factor, and denied that the action was due to pressure from the country. Qantas Airways.
The allegations add a new element to the dispute over the relationship between Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) and the Australian Labor government, which has been campaigning against Qatar Airways’ request for more flights.
The Conservative Opposition accused Labor of stifling competition to protect Qantas and launched a Senate inquiry into the decision.
Australian Transport Minister Catherine King told reporters in Canberra on Thursday that invasive searches of female passengers, including five Australian women, at Hamad International Airport in 2020 were followed by the airline’s flight to Australia in July this year. This was the “background” for the decision to deny additional flights. Year.
“That was not the only factor. That was not the only factor,” King said, referring to an incident in which an abandoned baby was found at the airport and women were removed from a Qatar Airways plane and forced to submit to medical examinations. It was,” he said. The Qatari government later apologized.
Mr King added that it was “nonsense” to suggest that increasing Qatar Airways flights would put downward pressure on international fares. Antitrust regulator the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said the more flights Qatar Airways flies, the cheaper its fares will be.
The ACCC last week accused Qantas of breaching consumer law by selling tickets for around 8,000 canceled flights in mid-2022.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce was due to step down in November after 15 years, but his resignation was brought forward due to criticism of the company’s past actions, and the company’s first female CEO, Vanessa Hudson, announced her resignation this week. Since then, I have taken up the position.
Qantas, which is reviewing the ACCC case, alleges the misconduct occurred at a time of unprecedented disruption for the airline industry.
Reporting by Byron Kaye and Kirsty Needham.Editing: Michael Perry
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