From the CEO
BACK IN the 1930s, Qantas helped create one of aviation’s first partnerships: Qantas Empire Airways. I love the story of how it came about.
Britain’s Imperial Airways, which was the biggest airline in the world at the time, wanted Qantas to fly the Brisbane-to-Darwin leg between Australia and England, with Imperial Airways taking passengers the rest of the way. Our then managing director, Hudson Fysh, had a different idea. He insisted Qantas meet Imperial Airways in the middle, flying all the way to Singapore. The result was that Qantas became an international airline for the first time and the Qantas Empire Airways partnership evolved into the modern Kangaroo Route.
Partnerships between airlines have come a long way since the ’30s. The concept of “codesharing” took off in the ’80s, meaning airlines could book customers onto flights operated by another carrier. In the ’90s, that expanded into alliances between multiple airlines. Qantas, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and American Airlines set up the oneworld Alliance, which now includes 15 airlines and 1000 destinations. In recent years, we’ve formed close relationships with Emirates and China Eastern, working together on network planning, scheduling and Frequent Flyer benefits.
These partnerships help us offer bookings to more places but they extend beyond that, too. China Eastern was crucial in helping us set up a new route to Beijing, while Japan Airlines and Vietnam Airlines have become co-investors in the Jetstar airlines based in those countries. With Emirates, we have the advantage of being able to compare notes with one of the only other carriers to operate long-haul A380 flights into and out of Australia.
Of course, alliances with other airlines aren’t the only partnership you need in aviation. We collaborate with a wide range of organisations in every part of our business, from our Frequent Flyer program to food and wine suppliers. Often a partner helps us to come up with a smarter way of working or to see things differently.
Technology and science is a key focus area. While Amazon is known as an online shopping portal, it’s also a big player in software and cloud computing. So we’ve teamed up to develop an advanced flight-planning system that allows us to crunch huge amounts of data and plot the most efficient way of operating a particular route. The system will help us save fuel and avoid bad weather – and it really comes into its own on routes such as Perth to London.
Another example is the fascinating work we’re doing with scientists from the Charles Perkins Centre at The University of Sydney, focusing on better understanding inflight health and wellbeing.
After 96 years, there’s a lot of knowledge and experience within Qantas. But we’re always curious about the fresh perspectives that collaboration can bring. And we look forward to the exciting developments to come over the next few years.