Qantas chief executive Vanessa Hudson woke yesterday to nightmare news: one of the world’s top airlines, Qatar Airways, is looking to buy a 20% slice of her biggest competitor, Virgin Australia.
The move would serve to deepen and strengthen the existing codeshare deal between Virgin and Qatar, and has the potential to fast-track Virgin’s international ambitions beyond Bali, New Zealand, Japan and the Pacific.
Critically, it could also improve Virgin’s domestic services by allowing the airline to lease Qatar’s twin-aisle B777s, boosting capacity and passenger comfort. These planes could be used on routes such as East Coast to Cairns and Perth, as well as some existing international routes, pilots suggested to Crikey.
At present Virgin carries only 31% of Australia’s domestic
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