Australia inks two new air services agreements, amends two more

By Andrew Curran.

The Australian Government has inked new air services agreements with the Maldives and El Salvador and updated existing agreements with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The government confirmed the changes in a May 18, 2026, press release, saying the agreements underscore its commitment to “creating opportunities for our aviation, tourism and trade industries and providing connectivity benefits to passengers”.

The new air services agreement with the Maldives comes just in time for the start of regular passenger charters between Melbourne Airport (MEL) and Malé Airport (MLE).

Maldivian’s sole A330-300 started weekly round-trips between the two airports yesterday, May 18, on behalf of an Australian tour company.

The government released little detail about the air services agreement, and the relevant department, the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts, is yet to update the relevant section of its website to reflect the new agreements.

Aero South Pacific has approached the department for details about the individual agreements.

However, the Maldivian flights will result in 528 seats becoming available on the country pair each week, or 27,456 seats annually, assuming the charter flights continue year-round.

The tour company, Luxury Escapes, also says it is working on flights between Sydney Airport (SYD) and Malé.

Code sharing between Australia and El Salvador 

Meanwhile, no airline or tour company has announced plans to fly between Australia and El Salvador, and the likelihood of any doing is low.

The Australian Government’s press release says the new arrangements between Australia and El Salvador will allow airlines to offer codeshare services to expand their networks and partnerships.

This could, in theory, see Qantas apply to have oneworld partner American Airlines place a QF flight designator on its flights from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) or Miami (MIA) to San Salvador (SAL).

Emirates and Qatar Airways get rights to fly to WSI

The amended air services agreements with Qatar and the UAE specifically deal with flights to the soon-to-open Western Sydney Airport (WSI).

The new agreements allows for seven round-trips per week to WSI from both markets.

Most existing bilateral air services agreements cap how many flights foreign carriers can operate into Australia’s biggest airports, specifically, Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), Brisbane (BNE), and Perth (PER). Capacity into smaller airports is often unrestricted to encourage airlines to fly there.

The Australian Government has decided to include Western Sydney Airport in the big airports group, even though the airport has only signed hard-start flight agreements with Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand.

Qatar Airways and Emirates have shown some interest in WSI but have not yet signed on the dotted line, although Emirates-owned cargo and catering company dnata is establishing a large facility at Western Sydney Airport.

The government’s announcement does not refer to any capacity constraints beyond the flight frequencies. On this basis, both airlines could operate daily A380 flights into WSI should they choose to do so.

A Western Sydney Airport spokesperson told Aero South Pacific that they welcomed the updated air service arrangements.

“WSI continues to have commercial discussions with a range of airlines and looks forward to adding more airlines to our opening partner international airlines, Singapore Airlines and Air NZ,” the spokesperson said.

No word on WSI from the Gulf carriers

Qatar Airways has famously fought the Australian Government for additional flying rights into Australia, currently capped at 28 weekly round-trips at the four major airports, only to be rebuffed in controversial circumstances.

The carrier has since resorted to inventive solutions, including operating tag flights to smaller airports via the larger gateways and buying a stake in Virgin Australia and wet-leasing aircraft to that airline for them to operate flights to Doha (DOH).

Whether Qatar Airways decides to operate stand-alone flights to Western Sydney Airport remains unclear.

Aero South Pacific has contacted Emirates and Qatar Airways for comment on the amended air services agreements.

Currently, Air New Zealand will be the first passenger airline to fly to Western Sydney Airport, with services due to begin on October 26. Singapore Airlines will follow, with its first flights to the airport scheduled to start on November 23.

Photo: AI-Generated.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com