The South China Morning Post highlighted the escalation of threats by the Australian airline “Qantas” against Qatar Airways in response to comments made by the latter’s CEO, Akbar Al-Baker, about withdrawal from the OneWorld alliance. Qantas asserted that Qataris’ withdrawal will not affect the alliance in any way. 

Al Baker, who has defended the expansion as being done at the invitation of the Australian government, said he “doesn’t see any point” staying in the alliance.

In his first public comments since the rift made headlines, Alan Joyce, Qantas Airways CEO, said: “Our view has been very simple, we’re after fair competition.”

He said this was what Qantas wanted from the Australian government’s bilateral discussions with other nations on aviation, adding: “Nobody could say there is anything wrong with that.”

Qantas’ CEO said, however, that the company’s customers would not lose out as a result of the dispute, as its pact with Emirates – Qatar’s arch-rival – along with Air France and KLM would allow it to replace any lost destinations only served by the Doha-based carrier.

“We’ve plenty of other alternative mechanisms, which is the way our network is designed,” Joyce said. “People have a lot of choice on the Qantas-coded network to get to the same European points that they had been using Qatar.”

As for the threat to quit Oneworld, he said: “If they decide to leave, it is because it is no longer working for them. Nobody should be in an alliance where they believe its not working for them. If Qatar feel they do better outside of Oneworld, that is up to them.”