Australians flying to the Middle East and beyond will have more options after the competition watchdog signed off on a long-awaited airline alliance.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has given Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways the final go-ahead for a five-year partnership expected to double flights between Australia and Doha.

The deal will boost competition and deliver more flights and connection points, with 10,000 seats to be added by the end of 2025.

The approval comes after Qatar bought a 25 per cent stake in Virgin in February – the latest step in the partnership first flagged in mid-2022.

“We consider that the conduct is likely to result in public benefits such as adding additional capacity on flights between Australia and the Middle East and is likely to result in minimal, if any, public detriment,” Commissioner Anna Brakey said.

“This will likely place downward price pressure on these routes and will also give customers of Virgin Australia and Qatar Airways a greater choice of international flights.”

The regulator flagged it would approve the deal in February and had allowed the airlines to advertise new Australia-Qatar flights in November 2024.

There was some opposition to the alliance, including concerns the deal would undercut Australian aviation jobs.

“We consider it unlikely that Virgin Australia or any other Australian airline would commence operating Australia-Doha services on a stand-alone basis in the next five years, even if the conduct was not authorised,” Ms Brakey said.

“As such, we consider it unlikely that the conduct will result in a material detrimental impact on the Australian aviation workforce.”

Virgin’s arrangements with other airlines on services to Europe, the Middle East and Africa would remain unchanged, the regulator said.

The approval came more than two years after the federal government rejected Qatar Airways’ application to run an extra 21 weekly flights into Australia, saying the change could cause problems for local carrier Qantas.

The decision and Qantas’s influence on Canberra were probed during a Senate inquiry into air service agreements in 2023.

Virgin Australia has been contacted for comment.

This post was originally published on Michael West.