Virgin Australia began its long-touted flights partnership with Qatar Airways on Thursday, a move expected to expand choice for Australian consumers while stepping up competition with Qantas.

Daily Sydney-Doha connections on Qatar planes will be followed by flights from Brisbane and Perth later this month, and from Melbourne in December, Australia’s second-biggest airline announced at an event at Sydney Airport. Under the terms of their “wet lease” arrangement, Qatar provides aircraft, crew and maintenance to operate the routes, which are sold as Virgin flights.

Virgin Australia chief executive Dave Emerson said the move was “delivering more choice, better value and a seamless global experience” to Australian travellers.

Virgin will sell tickets to 170 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, allowing it to tap Qatar’s extensive route network. The alliance is expected to add 2.65 million seats a year on flights from Australia to Doha, Qatar’s Middle Eastern hub.

The deal extends Virgin’s reach just weeks before it plans to relist on the Australian sharemarket. It allows the largely domestic carrier to carefully re-enter long-haul international travel, while Qatar gains deeper access to the Australian market.

Doha-based Qatar, which owns 25 per cent of Virgin, will essentially backstop Virgin’s position in the domestic market, which has been defined by damaging price wars between Qantas and Virgin, Virgin’s placement into administration in 2020 and the collapse of smaller players, such as regional carrier Rex Airlines last year.

Qatar has tried to expand its business in Australia for more than a decade. The Middle Eastern airline sought permission for more flights into the country in 2023, and was knocked back. The government’s rationale for blocking the request came under fire after reports that Qantas – in the public crosshairs for bad service, withholding COVID credits from customers and illegally firing 1800 employees to save money during the pandemic – had lobbied the government against the competition.

Accusations that Qantas engaged in “slot hoarding” at Sydney Airport, preventing other carriers from accessing the key entry to Australia, have also long simmered.

Flying into Australia under Virgin’s ticker allows Qatar to work around those limitations.

Qatar’s deal with Virgin was approved earlier this year. It came as public backlash for Qantas and the perception of a lack of competition reached fever pitch following revelations the country’s flagship carrier had knowingly sold flights it had already cancelled.

The Qatar long-haul flights are part of Virgin’s strategy, outlined in its IPO documents, to simplify its business “by minimising the complexity and risk to Virgin Australia’s core activities, balance sheet and earnings that long-haul international operations would otherwise entail”.

Private equity owner Bain Capital – which bought Virgin out of administration – hopes to raise $685 million in the airline’s IPO, selling down its holding from 70.2 per cent to about 40 per cent, while Qatar will maintain its stake of nearly 25 per cent. Virgin’s shares are expected to start trading on the ASX by the end of June.

Virgin hopes the lure of Qatar’s international network will also boost its domestic business as global passengers arriving on Qatar flights book onward services through Australia. The alliance will “generate more than $3 billion in economic activity within Australia over the next five years, fuelled by an anticipated surge in international visitors and increased tourism spending” and “create hundreds of new jobs across the country”, it claims.

Flying Boeing 777s, the Qatar planes will offer private suites and lie-flat beds in business class. Elon Musk’s high-speed Starlink Wi-Fi will also feature. To sweeten the deal, Virgin Australia is discounting some fares for travel between October and March 2026.

Dean Long, head of the Australian Travel Industry Association, said that for Australian travellers, the partnership “won’t have a huge impact on price, but there will be greater choice for people flying to Europe”.

And for the global market, “the Virgin flights will make a big difference for international travellers who want to come here”, he said.

“The link with Qatar will also help Virgin in its domestic short-haul competition with Qantas.”

There are other signs Australia’s aviation wars will intensify after the Virgin IPO. Virgin, which briefly overtook Qantas as top domestic carrier in December, had a 34.4 per cent market share in May, compared with 37.5 per cent by Qantas and 26.4 per cent by Qantas-owned Jetstar, the ACCC said.

On Wednesday, Qantas announced the closure of its Asian low-cost offshoot Jetstar Asia, which will free up 13 Airbus A320 aircraft to be redeployed within Australia, boosting its domestic capacity.

On Thursday, Qantas countered Virgin’s moves by announcing a sale of more than 80,000 discounted first, business and premium economy seats on international flights.

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