Qatar Airways is looking to add a second Australian city to its current Melbourne-only schedule, but says that Sydney Airport’s high cost and nightly curfew weigh against it.Speaking with AAP’s Jordan Chong, Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker talked up the strong yields and fewer restrictions of Melbourne’s Tullamarine in comparison with Sydney’s Kingsford Smith.

The curfew is a very big factor not operating to Sydney and the operating cost out of Sydney is very high,Al-Baker observed.Melbourne is a more efficient use of airplanes because it is a 24-hour airport and Sydney is not, so we operate there, citing that Qatar could not afford to park our airplanes for 12-13 hours in an airport.Qatar began Australian operations in late 2009 and saw of Melbourne as one of two Australian routes, and Al-Baker claims this expansion remains on the agenda.