Bob Katter tears shreds off Qantas and says what many are thinking about ridiculous airfare hikes

Queenslanders living in regional and remote parts of the state are paying sky-high airfares to travel to and from Brisbane, a situation that has led to veteran MP Bob Katter lashing out.

Qantas, Virgin Australia and Rex currently serve areas such as Mount Isa, Longreach and Roma, with customers paying more than $1,200 to fly back to Brisbane on some flights.

Mr Katter – who has been a member of the Outback seat of Kennedy for decades – said regional Queenslanders were paying twice as much for flights than they needed to and were being used to subsidize flights where the major airlines had competition.

The opinionated veteran MP said Qantas used their “huge profit margin” to subsidize international flights but there was no competition within Australia.

The MP said people in Mount Isa, Townsville and Roma were paying double the amount.

“I’ll tell you one thing about Qantas: it’s not the spirit of Australia,” he said.

“(Former CEO Alan) Joyce may be gone but his spirit lives on and that spirit is not the spirit of Australia.”

Mr Katter said the “tyranny of distance” had caused his father and uncle to die because no planes were available to take them to emergency medical care, which was a major problem for people living in regional and remote areas .

“In America you are never more than 90 miles from a city of half a million or a million people,” he said.

‘Well, 90 percent of the services here in Quyeeensland are further than 150 km from a major city, so we are fundamentally different from other countries.

“I’m going to try to get the three branches of government and the mining companies together and see if we can give an ultimatum: do it or take away all their business.”

The ABC reported that Qantas had redeployed its Boeing 737 aircraft and used smaller planes to serve remote towns in Queensland until April next year, making it harder for passengers to find flights.

In other parts of the state, passengers traveling from Longreach to Brisbane discovered their luggage had been left behind due to weight restrictions.

Longreach resident Amelia Jones told the ABC she recently traveled to the Queensland capital with her family for surgery when they reached their destination and discovered their bags had been left behind.

‘It was a bit of a panic. All my hospital papers were in those bags, everything we needed… plus all the baby stuff too,” Mrs Jones told the ABC.

The Western Australian government introduced a plan to reduce flight costs for residents of regional and remote areas in the state in 2022, after residents paid up to $1000 to fly back to Perth.

Qantas, Virgin Australia and Rex currently serve areas such as Mount Isa, Longreach and Roma, with customers on some flights paying more than $1,200 to fly back to Brisbane

The plan has cost taxpayers $105 million and will cap airfares at a maximum ticket price of $199 or $299 one-way.

It will be funded until June next year.

The major airlines came under fire this week after the ACCC released a report finding that domestic airfares between capital cities had risen by an average of 13.3 percent after Rex pulled out of major cities in July.

The report found that the number of flights between Adelaide and Melbourne almost doubled, with a 95 per cent increase.

The report was released on the same day the federal government announced an $80 million lifeline for embattled airline Rex to continue serving regional and remote parts of Australia and extend their voluntary management period until July 2025.

Qantas and Virgin have been contacted for comment.