Emirates, Qantas extend alliance
dubai — Emirates and Qantas seek to extend their partnership for another five years from next year through a new alliance deal that promises additional advantages to both carriers and their passengers. The carriers said in a statement that the revamped deal would reflect customer demand, new aircraft technology and each airline’s respective network strengths.
“These changes will deliver additional benefits to the eight million passengers who have travelled more than 65 billion kilometres on the combined network since 2013, increasing customer choice as well as frequent flyer earn and redeem opportunities,” the statement said.
The changes will also deliver financial upside to both airlines, with Qantas annualised net benefit estimated at more than $80 million from FY19 onwards.
Both airlines, meeting in Sydney to finalise the agreement, said changes to the joint network are designed to ensure the airlines better leverage each other’s networks, by providing three options to Australia from Europe – via Dubai and Singapore, and direct to Perth.
Qantas will re-route its daily London-Sydney A380 service via Singapore rather than Dubai and upgrade its existing daily Singapore-Melbourne flight from an A330 to an A380. As previously announced, Qantas’ existing London-DubaiMelbourne service will be replaced with its direct Dreamliner service flying London-Perth-Melbourne.
Customer demand for flights from Dubai to Australia with Emirates will remain well-served. Emirates will continue to operate 77 weekly services from Dubai to five cities – Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney – including seven daily A380 flights.
Tim Clark, president of Emirates airline, said the partnership has been, and continues to be, a success story. “Together we deliver choice and value to consumers, mutual benefit to both businesses, and expanded tourism and trade opportunities for the markets served by both airlines. We remain committed to the partner- ship.” Clark said Emirates and Qantas see an opportunity to offer customers an even stronger product proposition for travel to Dubai, and onward connectivity to its extensive network in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“We will announce updates in the coming weeks. Customers of both airlines will continue to benefit from the power of our joint network, from our respective products, and reciprocal frequent flyer benefits,” said Clark.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the changes represented an evolution of the partnership to deliver additional benefits for customers, including the millions of frequent flyer members of both airlines. “The first five years of the Qantas-Emirates alliance has been a great success. Emirates has given
Emirates and Qantas see an opportunity to offer customers an even stronger product proposition for travel to Dubai, and onward connectivity to its extensive network in Europe, MEA Tim Clark, President, Emirates
Qantas customers an unbeatable network into Europe that is still growing. We want to keep leveraging this strength and offer additional travel options on Qantas, particularly through Asia.
“Our partnership has evolved to a point where Qantas no longer needs to fly its own aircraft through Dubai, and that means we can redirect some of our A380 flying into Singapore and meet the strong demand we’re seeing in Asia. Improvements in aircraft technology means the Qantas network will eventually feature a handful of direct routes between Europe and Australia, but this will never overtake the sheer number of destinations served by Emirates and that’s why Dubai will remain an important hub for our customers,” said Joyce.
Tickets for Qantas’ new services will be available from tomorrow. Customers with existing bookings impacted by the changes will be reaccommodated onto the airlines’ new services or will be given the option to change their flights.
Effective from March 2018, the new deal offers the choice of three hub options between UK/Europe and Australia – Dubai, Perth and Singapore. From March 25, 2018, QF 2/1 A380 service will operate London-Sydney via Singapore, replacing one of the existing Singapore-Sydney A330 services. The second Singapore-Sydney daily service will continue to be operated by an A330 aircraft. From 25 March 2018, one daily Qantas Singapore-Melbourne service will be upgraded
from an A330 to an A380 (QF35/36), with the second three per week service increased to a daily A330 service (QF37/38), said the statement.
Together Qantas and Emirates provide customers with more than 100 codeshare destinations in Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Africa and the Middle East and Asia.
— issacjohn@khaledjtimes.com