In a weekend report chronicling Alan Joyce’s trip back to his home town of Dublin last week, the Qantas boss took what appeared to be a wild swing at his periodic sparring partner Perth Airport.

Unless Qantas could put its proposed Johannesburg-Perth flight through its operations at terminals three and four, rather than the airport’s designated international terminal, then plans for extra non-stop flights from Europe to Perth may have to be scrapped, Joyce warned.

Never mind there is nothing stopping Qantas running direct flights from Paris or Frankfurt through T3 and T4 already.

An accompanying photo also shows him holding a pint of Guinness, grinning broadly.

It would be tempting to think the diminutive Joyce, who is one of Australia’s highest-paid chief executives, had one too many drinks and got a little fast and loose with his views.

After all, in the same story Joyce was quoted as saying demand for the non-stop London-Perth service had been received “amazingly” well, with seat occupancy averaging 92 per cent for economy class and 94 per cent for business class.

But as one observer noted, Joyce is not one to go off piste.

The wily Irishman always knows exactly what he’s doing.

Play Video Watch the moment the Qantas Perth to London Dreamliner touches back down in Perth in record time. The West Australian Video Watch the moment the Qantas Perth to London Dreamliner touches back down in Perth in record time.

In this case, that objective is probably three-fold.

While Joyce no doubt wants to route as many international services through T3 as he can, to stop passengers leaking to other carriers like Virgin at T1, there are other issues at play.

For starters, the airport and the airlines are deep in negotiations for a new access multi-year deal that will set the prices paid by Qantas for using the airport’s facilities.

The airport’s draft proposed reducing those prices, but Joyce didn’t turn Qantas around by accepting the first offers that came his way.

Another issue bubbling away is the lease over terminal four, which expires at year’s end.

Perth Airport wants to take back control of it, in no small part so it can ensure Qantas moves to T1 by 2025 as agreed.

Unsurprisingly, Qantas is playing hardball. Expect more of the same from here.