In her first public comments since King confirmed the decision last month, Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka on Tuesday said she was disappointed with the decision, particularly given international airfares remain 50 per cent higher than pre-COVID-19. Virgin has a code share arrangement with Qatar, which means it would have directly benefited from additional flights.

“We are deeply disappointed that our partner Qatar Airways is unable to expand its services to Australia,” she said, and doubled down on the carrier’s previous invitation to work with the government to resolve the issue between Australia and Qatar.

“Additional Qatar flights would have an immediate and tangible effect in reducing airfares between Australia and Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Qatar is in the unique position in the context of a constrained global supply of widebody aircraft, to be able to quickly make available 4 additional services per day to Australia,” Hrdlicka said.

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Qatar’s application to fly to Australia 21 times a week would have put downward pressure on airfares and added 800,000 to 1 million additional seats between Australia, Doha and Europe each year. The rejection by King’s department has been the subject of much outrage across the bulk of the aviation and tourism sectors, particularly as there has not been an explanation from the government as to why the application was rejected.

Virgin’s bigger rival Qantas did not support the push for additional flights, despite Qatar and Qantas being members of the Oneworld alliance. Cam Wallace, the newly minted chief executive of Qantas International, said the backlash surrounding the Qatar decision had been overblown.

“The current debate on traffic rights completely distorts the broader dynamics in the market at the moment, and how competitive it is,” Wallace said. “We understand people always want cheaper fares, but that will come in a sustainable way from the recovery that is already in full swing.”

Qantas said on Tuesday Qatar has always had the option to increase its seat capacity on existing flights to Australia by exclusively flying Airbus A380S instead of its current Boeing 777/ A380 mix.

“This would immediately increase the number of seats offered by 27 per cent,” a Qantas spokesperson said.

The number of international flights to Australia is increasing. Sydney and Melbourne saw more international travellers passing through their airports than in domestic in July for the first time since before the pandemic. Since May, airlines serving Australia have added 1.7 million annual one-way international seats. Over the next 12 months, an additional 6.4 million one-way seats will be added, an increase of 34 per cent.