Qatar Airways has been a stalwart of Australia's international aviation scene throughout COVID-19. They've maintained flights over the course of the pandemic, even if loads were light and profits non-existent. In the process, they got tens of thousands of Australians home.

Qatar Airways was one of the few international airlines that maintained Australian flights

Sticking with Australia throughout the bad times has earned Qatar Airways a lot of goodwill (and probably a lot of future business). But despite CEO Akbar Al Baker repeatedly saying he just wanted his airline to play a big role in getting people home, wherever they came from, in Australia's case, Qatar has bigger goals in mind than just helping people get home.

"The impact (of the travel downturn) has been far greater in the Asia-Pacific than what's been experienced globally, and that's particularly so for Australia," Brendan Sobie, a Singapore-based independent aviation consultant, told our recent Future Flying Forum.

Australia's Department of Home Affairs data reveals 289,000 people landed in Australia in the 12 months from July 1, 2020 - when the Government put strict limits on the number of people who could fly in each week.

With Qantas putting its regular international flying on hold, it was left to a handful of foreign airlines to do the heavy lifting and get stranded Australians home.

"These airlines were the key airlines for Australians," said Mr Sobie ."They were very committed, very heavily invested. Those airlines were mainly Singapore Airlines, Qatar, and Emirates.

"In the earlier phases of the crisis, in the second quarter of last year, when everything was shut down entirely, Qatar was by far the largest airline in Australia."

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Qatar Airways became Australia's biggest international airline

By mid-2020, Qatar Airways was commanding a 32% share of all passengers flying in and out of Australia (albeit based on small passenger numbers). Qatar temporarily became Australia's defacto international airline, closely tailed by Singapore Airlines in the vacuum created by Qantas suspending its international commercial flights.

"The load factors were very low, but they were committed to getting the people who wanted to leave Australia, and those people who were able to come home and go through quarantine, they were able to carry them," said Mr Sobie.

Towards the end of 2020, Singapore Airlines got the upper hand on Qatar regarding market share in Australia. Singapore Airlines also maintained its 50 year plus run of continuous flying to Australia throughout the pandemic.

Between April 2020 and September 2021, Singapore Airlines operated around 3,800 passenger flights to Australia, carrying 66,700 people. Singapore Airlines says nearly all the people onboard were Australians returning home.

In addition to commercial flights, Singapore Airlines has operated 57 repatriation flights since June 2020, bringing approximately 13,000 Australians home.

Until recently, Qantas stuck to flying Australian Government-backed repatriation flights. Qantas says it has operated "hundreds" of repatriation flights since the onset of COVID-19, including more than 60 from India. Altogether, these repatriation flights have run from 31 destinations, including 19 not normally on the Qantas flight paths.

Qatar Airways wants better access to Australia's biggest airports

Qatar Airways doesn't enjoy the easy access to Australia Singapore Airlines does. Brendan Sobie says Qatar has never been able to get the traffic rights it wanted there.

"Qatar had an incentive to push Australia," he said about Qatar Airways sticking with flights to Australia. "As Qatar always does, they have a long-term strategic view.

"They've had a traffic rights issue in Australia for many years and haven't been able to get all the traffic rights they wanted. They were capped."

Qatar's flights to Australia's biggest airports are capped at 21 per week. That saw Brisbane stay off Qatar's destination map. But throughout COVID-19, Qatar has been able to fly there - much to the delight of Brisbane Airport and the Queensland State Government. All three parties would like to see Qatar's flights there continue.

The view is, Qatar Airways is using its "commitment" to Australia to gently twist a few arms in Canberra to gain long-term access to Brisbane without cutting back its other flights. There's more than a half-decent chance Qatar will get what it wants.

For a while, at least, Qatar Airways was Australia's number one repatriation airline. Qatar's Australian market share will inevitably normalize as Qantas and other airlines get back to business flying in and out of Australia. But down the track, Qatar's decision to stick with Australia, strategic or not, could pay big dividends for the airline.