And the federal government may be forced to front an inquiry over its rejection of additional Qatar Airways flights after the opposition accused it of running a “protection racket” for Qantas.

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie has called for an inquiry into the government’s decision to block an additional 21 Qatar Airways flights, which had potential to reduce airfares and boost the Australian tourism industry.

“The ACCC’s allegations come at a time when Qantas’s reputation has already been hit hard on several fronts,” Qantas said in a corporate statement which no executive or director has put their name to.

“We want the community to know that we hear and understand their disappointment. We know the only way to fix this is by delivering consistently.

“We know it will take time to repair and we are absolutely determined to do that.”

McKenzie led an attack by other Coalition members.

“It’s very easy to assume that this government is continuing to run a protection racket for the most complained about company in our country,” Senator McKenzie told reporters on Monday.

“There are a number of serious questions that need to be asked.”

The move to block the flights has come under scrutiny after it was revealed Qantas lobbied the government to do so before posting a record $2.5 billion profit over the 2022/23 financial year.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said there was a “murkiness” around the government’s rejection of Qatar Airways.

“They’ve given seven different reasons in seven different days to stop Qatar flying those new routes,” he told Nine’s Today show.

The calls follow legal action by the consumer watchdog over the airline allegedly taking bookings and charging for 8000 flights that had already been cancelled.

The ACCC has said it wants a fine of more than $250 million  to be levelled against the airline if the Federal Court finds it guilty of breaching consumer law. The previous biggest fine was $125 million issued against Volkswagon over its emissions equipment on cars.

Qantas said it wanted to address the ACCC allegations without cutting across the court action.

“The period of time the ACCC’s claims relate to, in mid-2022, was one of well-publicised upheaval and uncertainty across the aviation industry, as Qantas struggled to restart post-Covid,” Qantas said.

“We openly acknowledge that our service standards fell well short and we sincerely apologise.

“We have worked hard to fix them since and that work continues.”

The airline said there had been claims that it had charged a fee for no service due to the cancelled flights.

“Our longstanding practice is that when a flight is cancelled, customers are offered an alternative flight as close as possible to their original departure time or a refund.”

Qantas shares fell another 3 per cent today and are down 11 per cent for the past month.

Mr Dutton said “(The prime minister) has got to start listening to Australians. If you want to go and visit family overseas or want to go on a holiday, you don’t want to be paying thousands of dollars more for airfares.”

Queensland’s Labor government, represented by acting premier Steven Miles, has also spoken out against its federal counterpart.

“Let’s hope that common sense prevails and this decision is actually reversed,” he said on Monday.

These calls come at the end of a horror week for Qantas, which has been marked by a Senate grilling on delays, a potential $250 million fine for cancellations from the consumer watchdog, and the revelation CEO Alan Joyce had received more than $10 million worth of shares.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is taking court action over Qantas allegedly advertising the sale of flights that had already been cancelled.

A Qantas spokesperson said the company would review allegations made by the ACCC, but acknowledged its standards “fell well short” as the airline emerged from the COVID pandemic.

“The ACCC’s allegations come at a time when Qantas’ reputation has already been hit hard on several fronts,” the spokesperson said.

“We want the community to know that we hear and understand their disappointment. We know that the only way to fix it is by delivering consistently. We know it will take time to repair. And we are absolutely determined to do that.”

Rex Airlines deputy chair and former federal transport minister John Sharp told ABC radio Qantas “plays the game very ruthlessly, they play it to win” and said consumers’ opinions of the airline should have been a factor in deciding whether to award bonuses to executives.

“The board has to make its own mind up on these things but certainly it would be difficult to, in my view, justify paying huge bonuses when at the same time the reputation of the company has been so badly damaged,” he said.