In my opinion, the issue here lies entirely with the Australian government. International airlines including Qatar have been trying to buy additional slots into major Australian airports, but have been turned down with some pretty questionable reasoning around “protecting the Australian aviation industry” (see: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-30/qantas-qatar-airways-... )

Meanwhile Qantas - a private company, who took over a billion AUD in government support during Covid are expected to pay the outgoing CEO over 20 million AUD in bonuses.

Having flown several times between Qatar and Australia in the last couple years, I don’t think I’ve had a single flight that wasn’t completely booked out. In comparison to the following legs to Europe which have been more like 75% full.

There is a real need for additional capacity on these routes (for those outside of Australia, the gulf countries, Hong Kong and Singapore are the most popular layover countries for Australians travelling to Europe, Africa and Asia due to their location) and the way I see it is that Qatar acknowledge that, tried to buy additional capacity and failing that have had to come up with some creative solutions to work around a government that values a sub-standard flag carriers profits over what’s best for the Australian consumer.