00:00Virgin is currently owned privately by Bain Capital, they bought the airline when it collapsed
00:09during the pandemic several years ago.
00:12So now Qatar Airways is proposing to buy a 25% stake in Virgin.
00:19If approved, this would mean flights from Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney to Doha
00:24that would essentially open up direct Australian flights to a big port that's a portway to
00:32many other international destinations.
00:35Virgin hasn't actually flown long-haul overseas flights for quite some time currently, I believe
00:41it's just Indonesia, Vanuatu and Fiji that it's able to access directly.
00:47So Virgin would be going into Doha via what's called a wet deal, basically that would be
00:52loaning planes in some way off Qatar Airways, that would get it back into longer-haul flights
00:58more easily than if it had to expand itself through quite a long and expensive process.
01:04Obviously for Qatar Airways it also gets that airline more into Australia.
01:10Qatar Airways was actually blocked last year by the federal government from expanding more
01:16flights into Australia.
01:17It wanted to add 21 extra flights per week to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane in addition
01:23to the 28 weekly flights that it currently offers.
01:27When that deal was denied last year it was actually quite controversial, in fact two
01:33former bosses of the ACCC, the Consumer Watchdog, came out and said that they thought that rejection
01:38of that deal was anti-competitive for Australians.
01:42So as the Treasurer has noted this morning, this deal is essentially needing to be reviewed
01:48by the Foreign Investment Review Board and that is because it would involve Qatar Airways
01:54being involved in an Australian-owned company.
01:57Qatar Airways is actually owned by that country itself.
02:01It is worth noting that Virgin Airways has previously been owned or had stakes in it
02:08from airlines from other countries including two airlines from China, Singapore Airlines
02:13and Etihad.
02:15So there is a history of this airline having overseas backers in it.
02:21As the Treasurer has noted the Foreign Investment Review Board will need to make a decision
02:26and then ultimately the veto power comes down to him himself.
02:31The ACCC is also reportedly involved in this deal.
02:35The Treasurer says they haven't actually, the ACCC hasn't yet actually received a formal
02:41notice from Virgin and Qatar about this decision.
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