Sydneysiders aren’t the only ones receiving access to the ‘World’s Best Airline‘ next year with Qatar announcing new daily flights to and from South Australia
Beginning in May, the carrier will operate its Airbus A350-900 between Qatar and Adelaide – its fourth route from Australia following Melbourne, Perth and commencing in March next year, Sydney.
Flights will arrive in Adelaide at 4.25pm and depart about 9.00pm.
In addition to adding around 228 jobs in South Australia and boosting the local economy, the airline’s increased activity from Australia will likely add pricing pressure on other UAE-based carriers such as Emirates and Etihad, which currently offer the most connections from Australia to the Gulf.
Qatar’s additional services from the country could also increase competition for destinations in Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong, which are often used as stopovers for Aussies travelling to Europe.
This view was shared by South Australian Tourism Minister, Leon Bignell, who said Qatar’s flights would benefit South Australia by giving them another way of travelling to the Middle East, Europe and America.
“It reaches 140 destinations around the world, so what it’ll do is it’ll allow passengers to come from Adelaide from the Middle East from the east coast of the US and from destinations right across Europe and, importantly, we’ll also be able to fill the cargo of these planes with our premium food produce from here.”
According to Bignell, Qatar’s direct service to Adelaide was not arranged by the State Government, however, he would not discuss the deal in further detail.
“That’s commercial in confidence because we are up against other states, but we do deals with all sorts of airlines and just as we have a deal with Qatar,” he said.
“We also have long standing deals with Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines so we don’t go around telling people the deals that we’ve done with their competitors.”