Qatar Airways has flown to Australia since 2009, and on 8 October 2026 it staged its most elaborate pitch yet to the market: a showcase at Woodcut, Ross Lusted’s restaurant in Crown Sydney, hosted by the airline’s incoming Chief Customer Officer, Calum Laming, who joins from British Airways on 1 November. The announcements were specific. Lusted has written First and Business Class menus for flights out of Australia, to run from February to July 2027; Italian mixologist Lorenzo Antinori, whose Bar Leone in Hong Kong was named the world’s best bar in 2025, has created a cocktail and mocktail list that is already pouring on every Qatar Airways flight departing Australia and New Zealand; First and Business Class passengers get a Diptyque amenity kit; and Starlink Wi-Fi is now on more than 150 widebodies, with a live link to crew over Saudi Arabia to prove it.
I wrote about Qsuite and its 2026 awards last month; this is what the airline is layering on top of the seat for its Australian routes. Here are the facts.
Qatar Airways Australia Upgrade: Key Facts
- Announced: 8 October 2026, Woodcut, Crown Sydney
- Menus: by Australian chef Ross Lusted for First and Business Class on flights from Australia, February to July 2027 — Business Class starter of Woodcut white cut chicken with macadamia dressing, corn and shiitake; main of slow-cooked lamb shoulder with lentils, spinach and puffed quinoa; dessert of caramel roasted apple with vanilla cream and verbena; First Class starter of Woodcut tiger prawns with harissa oil and pickled carrot; main of roasted fish fillet in a seafood orzo broth; dessert of set milk with stone fruit and elderflower
- Cocktails: by Lorenzo Antinori (Bar Leone, Hong Kong — World’s Best Bar 2025), now served on all flights departing Australia and New Zealand to or via Doha in First and Business Class, with cabin-exclusive drinks and the full list in the A380 inflight lounge — First Class: Rising To The Sky (botanical gin, champagne, apple), Tokyo 75 (Japanese gin, champagne, lemon), Japanese Old Fashioned, The Aviator (XO cognac, champagne, orange); Business Class: Italian Highball, Old Smoke (peated Scotch and Amarula), The Carousel (cognac, mango, ginger ale); mocktails include Oriental Fizz and Pineapple Margarita
- Amenities: First and Business Class kits with Diptyque body lotion, lip balm, face mist and a 10 ml fragrance
- Wi-Fi: Starlink in all cabins on more than 150 widebodies — 777s, 787s and A350s, including the world’s first Starlink-equipped 787-9s, with the full 787 fleet due by the end of 2026; launched October 2024, more than 23 million passengers connected across 86,000 flights
- Chief Customer Officer: Calum Laming from 1 November 2026, previously CCO at British Airways (2022–2026), with Etihad, Virgin and Air New Zealand before that
- Australian network: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth nonstop, and Adelaide via Auckland (resumed June 2026), with Qsuite on the 777s and A350s and the A380 — with First Class — on Sydney
- Fares: unchanged; see below
A Chef and a Bar for One Market
Airlines commission celebrity menus all the time; what is unusual is the geography. Lusted’s dishes are for flights out of Australia only, which means the Doha-bound sector gets Australian produce cooked to an Australian chef’s recipes, and the return gets Qatar’s standard catering. It is the same logic Alaska is using with Seattle chefs and Singapore Airlines with its home-market guest chefs: cook for the departure market, not the brand. The February–July 2027 window covers the Australian autumn and winter — peak season for Australians flying to Europe — and the First Class fish in orzo broth and set milk with stone fruit read like Woodcut’s own menu lifted into the air.
Antinori’s list is already in service, and it is the more immediately useful change. Qatar’s A380 inflight lounge, which flies Sydney–Doha, now has a ten-cocktail list including the Tokyo 75 and a Japanese Old Fashioned, with five mocktails for the dry; in Qsuite the Business Class selection is shorter but includes an Italian Highball and the Old Smoke, which pairs peated Scotch with Amarula — a drink that will divide a cabin. One quirk of the published list: the same cocktail name can mean a different cognac or Scotch depending on whether you are in First, Business or the lounge, so ask what is in the glass.
Starlink and the New Customer Chief
Qatar was the first Gulf carrier to install Starlink, in October 2024, and the Sydney event was built around it: a live video call to cabin crew on an aircraft over Saudi Arabia, and a presenter telling the room that “Starlink on board isn’t necessarily a nice to have — it’s a need to have.” More than 150 widebodies now carry it, which covers the 777s and A350s on the Australian routes, with the rest of the 787 fleet due by the end of 2026. It is free in every cabin.
The man presenting all this was Calum Laming, 34 years in the industry and, by his own count, 172 trips to Sydney. He was Chief Customer Officer at British Airways until earlier this year and he takes the same title at Qatar on 1 November. His line from the stage, “there’s a lot to come for Qatar Airways, that I’m sure of,” is the sort of thing executives say; the fact that Qatar hired BA’s customer chief in the same month BA unveiled its new A380 is the more telling detail.
Tip: the Antinori cocktails are on board now on every Australia and New Zealand departure; the Lusted menus start in late February 2027, so a Sydney–Doha flight in the Australian autumn gets both.
Qsuite From Australia, First-Hand Context
I have not flown Qatar Airways from Australia and this is a preview of a soft-product announcement. My comparison for Gulf-carrier catering on a long overnight is Etihad’s 787-9 business class, which I rated 3.5 out of 5 and marked down for the wine, and Emirates’ 777 from Malé, where the food carried a dated cabin. A named chef, a named bartender and a kit from Diptyque are exactly the things that would have moved my Etihad score; whether they survive a 14-hour Sydney–Doha sector is the test.
How Much Does It Cost?
Nothing changes on the fare: the Lusted menus, Antinori cocktails and Diptyque kits are included in First and Business Class on the Australian routes, and Starlink is free in every cabin. Qatar’s fares from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth to Doha and Europe are dynamic; Avios pricing through Qatar Airways Privilege Club is also dynamic, with the A380 First cabin from Sydney the scarcest award.
Flight prices do move between platforms. The same business class seat on the same date is not always the same price on the airline’s own site, Trip.com and Expedia: point-of-sale currency, consolidator fares and what is bundled into the ticket can shift the fare by a few percent — and occasionally by much more on premium cabins booked out of Asia. So before I pay I run the same dates through Aviasales, which scans dozens of booking sites at once, then check Trip.com (often the sharpest on Asian routes) and Expedia (strongest when you add a hotel to the same booking). One caveat: a ticket bought through a booking site is changed or refunded through that site, not the airline, so read the fare rules before you buy.
An Australian chef in First, Hong Kong’s best bar in the A380 lounge and BA’s former customer chief running it all — Qatar is spending on the Australian market, and Qsuite flyers get the benefit first.
Photos © Qatar Airways
This preview is based on official announcements — I haven’t flown Qatar Airways from Australia yet. Read more about how I review or visit my Work With Me page.
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