Labor is ready to team up with the Greens and independent Senator Nick Xenophon to launch a Senate inquiry into ailing national carrier Qantas.

This comes as the national carrier backtracks on earlier statements about the carbon tax, releasing a statement on Wednesday saying that the tax was ''among the significant challenges we face''. Earlier this week the company said its problems ''were not related to the carbon tax''.

In its statement, the company also reiterated its support for changes to the Sale Act and warned that the distortion in the aviation playing field would remain, even though both sides of politics accepted that the distortion existed.