Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said it is not clear cut why the government denied Qatar the extra routes.

“We’ve had reasons thrown up in terms of behaviour of officials in Qatar, we’ve had reasons about Qantas’ profitability, we’ve had reasons about questions around purchasing of new aircraft,” he said.

“It’s not the government’s job to automatically make Qantas profitable.

“Of course, we want to see the national carrier be profitable and for it not to need government intervention or bailing out but there’s no transparency around the basis upon which the government formed this decision.”

Opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume said it was “quite confronting” that Qantas heavily lobbied the Albanese government to deny Qatar the extra flights, which would have provided an extra one million seats a year.

“Increasing the competition would bring down the cost of airfares for Australians and the Albanese government has denied that,” she said.

“They actually went against departmental advice after lobbying from Qantas, now, that in itself is a great concern because it means that the government is actually artificially keeping airfares high.”

She also raised concerns about unused flight credits given to customers during the pandemic expiring at the end of the year and going straight to Qantas’ bottom line.

The company revealed the value of flight credits it holds is $100 million higher than reported, as boss Alan Joyce defended its billion-dollar profit.

In an explosive exchange with senators during a parliamentary inquiry hearing on Monday, senior executives came under heavy criticism just days after posting a record $2.47 billion profit.

Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully said for her airline about $100 million in credits were yet to be redeemed by customers.

For overseas bookings, no amount could be given, with Qantas to provide the information on notice.

This is on top of the $370 million worth of unclaimed credits reported last week, which are set to expire at the end of this year.

The hearing was told media campaigns, advertising and text messages were being used to encourage people to claim the credits and get the balance to zero by the end of December.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce defended the government’s decision to reject an application by Qatar Airways for an additional 21 services per week.

Despite both airlines being members of the Oneworld alliance, Qantas opposed the plan for the extra flights.

The Qantas boss admitted the airline lobbied the government, saying it amounted to protecting Australia’s national interest.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones earlier said the choice to deny Qatar Airways its request was made to keep Qantas profitable.

“Having a national airline that occasionally post a profit is not a bad-news story, (it) is actually a good news story,” he told reporters.

Virgin Australia’s boss questioned why the government was blocking more domestic flights to protect Qantas when it was a publicly-listed company

“You got the entire industry (supporting this) and Qantas is the only party objecting,” she said on Tuesday.

“We would encourage reopening this … there wasn’t enough information provided to help balance out.”

Hrdlicka also hit back at suggestions Qantas as the national carrier needed to be shielded by government intervention.

“They’re privately owned (and) listed on the public market, they’re not government-owned,” she said.

-with AAP