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 despite 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”.
