‘Ghost flights’: Why is Qatar Airways flying almost-empty planes in Australia?

Qatar Airways has reportedly been operating near-empty passenger jets between Melbourne and Adelaide to skirt restrictions on its number of flights to major airports in Australia. These ‘ghost flights’ sometimes even have no passengers, as per The Guardian report.

With this, Qatar’s airline has exploited a loophole that has allowed it to fly extra jets to Australia, the report added.

What are ‘ghost flights’? Why is Qatar flying almost empty flights to Australia? Let’s take a closer look.

What are ‘ghost flights’?

‘Ghost flights’ is a term used to describe aircraft operating with less than 10 per cent passenger capacity to fulfil an obligation.

As per The Hindu, a 1993 EU regulation mandates European airlines to fly empty or near-empty jets to retain their take-off and landing slots.

However, ghost flights have come under scrutiny globally as the aviation sector’s large amount of carbon emissions contribute to the climate crisis.

Qatar’s ‘ghost flights’ in Australia

Qatar Airways is presently allowed to run 28 flights a week into Australia’s four major airports – Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. Thus, it operates return flights, one per day, from the Qatari capital Doha to these four cities.

As per Simple Flying, there is no restriction on the number of flights operated by the Qatar government-owned airline to smaller airports, such as Adelaide, under the current bilateral agreement.

Last November, Qatar Airways launched its Doha - Melbourne - Adelaide - Melbourne - Doha (QR988/989) service, Simple Flying reported.

According to The Guardian, the Qatari airline started a daily non-stop flight between Doha and Melbourne last November, but with “Adelaide registered as its destination and departure port in Australia”. This means the destination of the flight from Doha was Adelaide, with a stoppage in Melbourne.

However, the airline is not allowed to sell tickets to domestic passengers on the route between Melbourne and Adelaide. So, these flights only have international passengers who booked tickets from Doha, reported The Guardian.

As per the British newspaper, Qatar’s QR988 reaches Melbourne from Doha at 11.30 pm every night, with most of the passengers disembarking. But those who booked the ticket to Adelaide have to undertake a six-hour layover at Tullamarine airport’s international terminal. This layover is a result of Adelaide airport’s curfew from 11 pm to 6 am.

QR989 departs from the Adelaide airport at 11.40 am each day and lands in Melbourne within two hours. Passengers travelling from Melbourne have a shorter layover before the non-stop flight takes off for Doha, reported The Guardian.

As per the UK newspaper, the QR988 leg from Melbourne to Adelaide with the overnight layover has passengers in single digits and sometimes even no flyers.

Notably, Qatar Airways also runs a direct flight daily between Doha and Adelaide, which continues onto Auckland, noted Simple Flying.

Qatar has used the same loophole before to run a second daily service between Doha and Sydney by continuing services to Canberra.

Qatar denied additional flights 

The Australian government recently rejected Qatar airline’s request to operate additional 21 flights into major airports, citing “national interest considerations”. Some say this decision has mostly benefitted Australian airline Qantas.

Monash University professor Greg Bamber, who is also the co-author of the airline industry book Up in the Air, told Daily Mail Australia, “I think it’s outrageous that the government has stopped them (Qatar) doing it, given that we have astronomically high, price-gouging airfares internationally, from Qantas”.

According to Australian Financial Review (AFR), banning Qatar Airways from adding more flights can cost Australia more than $500 million a year in tourism revenue.

Industry sources also backed Qatar as some expressed ire at the airline for flying near-empty planes from Adelaide to Melbourne. “It just shows the government’s rules are not fit for purpose if Qatar is exploiting a loophole to bring tourists here,” a source told AFR.

Speaking to The Guardian, an aviation industry source said, “The whole purpose is to get to Melbourne … I mean they weren’t even selling tickets [to Adelaide> for the first few weeks.”

“They (Qatar Airways) were taking the piss out of the industry and the (Australian aviation) laws.”

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Australian govt defends decision

Addressing Parliament on Wednesday (9 August), Australia’s transport minister Catherine King said Qatar’s request was turned down to protect the national interest.

“The government has determined that agreeing to the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority request for additional services is not in our national interest, and we will always consider the need to ensure that there are long-term, well-paid, secure jobs by Australians in the aviation sector when we are making these decisions,” AFR quoted her as saying.

However, in her opinion piece for Sydney Morning Herald, business columnist Elizabeth Knight argued that allowing additional Qatar flights into Australia would have created more jobs. “Allowing Qatar to provide more services is a no-brainer given that economists, such Tony Webber, have estimated doing so would have generated an additional half-a-billion dollars in tourism revenue and thousands of jobs,” she wrote.

Australian Airports Authority chief executive James Goodwin told AFR that operating more flights would boost tourism. “More flights into Australia will simply mean more jobs in the tourism and aviation sector. That is something we should all be striving for,” Goodwin said.

With inputs from agencies