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The nation's competition watchdog has labelled comments by the Qantas chief executive about competition in the airline industry as "unhelpful" as it investigates a complaint from Virgin Australia.
Key points:
- Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said it was a case of survival of the fittest in the airline industry during the coronavirus crisis
- He warned against Federal Government assistance just for competitor Virgin Australia prompting a complaint
- The ACCC is investigating and labelled Mr Joyce's as "unhelpful"
Virgin chief executive Paul Scurrah and Qantas' Alan Joyce are locked in a bitter public feud over the future of their companies, leading the former to write to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) chairman Rod Sims.
Mr Joyce was highly critical of suggestions the embattled Virgin Australia could receive Commonwealth support to stay flying, arguing the Federal Government should not be propping up one company over others during the coronavirus crisis.
He said assistance should not be offered to businesses that had been "badly managed" and that it would be a case of "survival of the fittest" in the airline sector.
"The complaint that we've had from Paul Scurrah is that Qantas is engaging in anti-competitive conduct, designed to damage Virgin as a competitor," Mr Sims told the ABC.
"We have to look at whether the behaviour has the purpose or the effect of substantially limiting competition."
"It's obviously an important matter because what we really need to make sure when we come out of this crisis, and we will, is that we don't have important structural changes.
"We went into this crisis with two airlines, we need to come out of this crisis with two airlines."
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The ACCC said it was very early in its investigation but urged restraint.
"I'm just saying generally rather than the legal point, just a general point — really we need companies working together during this crisis and talking about the survival of the fittest could be seen as quite unhelpful," Mr Sims said.
Both Qantas and Virgin have grounded their international fleets and dramatically cut back domestic routes during the coronavirus outbreak, with travel restrictions and plummeting passenger numbers hitting their operations hard.
The Federal Government has already announced $715 million in support for the airline sector, waiving government fees and charges.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg have both said nationalising companies was not currently on the Government's agenda.
Topics: government-and-politics, epidemics-and-pandemics, covid-19, business-economics-and-finance, air-transport, australia