Transport Minister Catherine King blocked extra Qatar Airways flights on the same day she wrote a letter to five Australian women who were strip-searched at a Qatar airport.

Ms King is under intense pressure to reveal the timeline of her decision-making and what factors contributed to rejecting Qatar Airways’ flight-expansion bid.

On Thursday morning, Ms King fronted media and confirmed she decided on July 10 to block Qatar Airways’ application to almost double its weekly flights to major capital cities.

It was the same date of a letter she signed to female passengers who were strip-searched at Doha’s international airport in 2020 after a premature baby was found in a terminal bathroom.

The letter stated: “As most Australians were, I was shocked by what happened to you at Hamad International Airport.

“The treatment that you received was disgraceful. All travellers deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.”

Ms King wrote that the government was “not considering additional bilateral air rights with Qatar”.

The women had earlier written to the minister about their harrowing  experience in which they were taken off their Qatar Airways flight and “kept hostage at gunpoint and most of us were then examined vaginally without consent”.

One of the women was with a four-month-old child at the time, and one was legally blind and in her 70s.

“We gather from media reports that Qatar Airways is requesting more landing rights at Australian airports,” they wrote to Ms King.

“It is our strong belief Qatar Airways is not fit to carry passengers around the globe let alone to major Australian airports.”

Ms King also said on Thursday that she informed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about her decision before it was made public on July 18.

But she did not reveal the specific date she told Mr Albanese.

Ms King said the treatment of the Australian women in Qatar gave “context” to her decision but there was no single factor that influenced it.

“I made this decision in the national interest, and there is no one factor that I will point to that swayed my decision one way or the other,” she said.

“In making this decision, I did have the national interest – not commercial interests – at play when I was making that decision.

“So it [the strip-search incident] was a context of the decision that I
made. There was no one factor that influenced this decision.”

Ms King said she consulted colleagues prior to the ruling, “but the decision was mine”. She did not say who she spoke to.

The federal opposition has accused the government of running a “protection racket” for Qantas by preventing other airlines from expanding.

A Senate inquiry will investigate the decision after Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie secured enough votes on Tuesday afternoon to set up the probe.

On Wednesday, Federal Parliament erupted in raucous scenes as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton demanded answers from the minister.

Ms King on Thursday took aim at Qatar Airways, saying the airline could “increase its flights into Australia today” by targeting regional airports, but was choosing not to.

“The very reason we have four major airports, and then we have regional airports … is we want to try to get international tourism into our regional markets,” she said.

“Qatar could commence re-flying back into [Canberra] airport today. They could fly into Darwin. They could fly into Adelaide. They could fly into Cairns and they could fly into the Gold Coast and into Darwin.

“They are choosing not to do so. They could also, on the flights where they’re not flying the Airbus 380, increase passenger seats into those major airports immediately, and we would encourage them to do so.”