Virgin Australia to start selling Qatar Airways flight tickets in June 2025

Virgin Australia can start selling tickets for new Qatar Airways-operated flights between Doha and four Australian capital cities following an interim approval by the country’s competition watchdog on Friday. The interim approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) allows Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways to commence marketing and selling 28 weekly scheduled return flights between Doha and Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. ”We consider that granting interim authorization now will allow Qatar Airways and Virgin Australia the lead time to undertake the necessary planning discussions, marketing, selling and system alignment in preparation for Virgin Australia to commence flying the new services by June 2025,” ACCC deputy chair Mick Keogh said. This comes after Australia’s government last year denied Qatar Airways’ requests to fly additional services to the four capital cities. Under the proposed arrangements, Virgin Australia would use Qatar Airways craft and crew to operate the new services. In the aviation industry, this agreement takes the name ‘wetlease’ arrangement. The new services will be in addition to the international services already operated by Qatar Airways. The airlines sought urgent interim authorization to enable Virgin Australia to start flying its new Australia-Doha services from Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane in June 2025, with Perth services to follow in November 2025.