In 2023, we all may need to chip in and buy Qantas and Emirates a gift made of tin ???? because the two airlines are keen to extend their relationship by another five years to last a full decade.
The airline couple revealed their intentions to apply for an extension to their arrangement this morning, but just as with any long-term relationship, they said they’ll need to make some changes in order to grow (make more money and satisfy passengers).
Adjustments will include Qantas squeezing its forthcoming direct Perth-London service into the codeshare arrangement.
The Flying Kangaroo will also re-route its Sydney to London A380 flights via Singapore instead of Dubai from 25 March 2018.
Plus, the airline will replace its Melbourne-Dubai-London flights with Melbourne-Perth-London.
These three changes will give travellers, particularly from the East Coast of Australia, more choice when flying to Europe with three options – via Dubai, Perth and Singapore.
Although it may feel as though Qantas is pulling away from its Dubai base, the carrier’s Chief Executive, Alan Joyce, stressed that the city will “remain an important hub for our customers” and they’ll still have 77 weekly services to fly on between Australia and Dubai.
“The first five years of the Qantas-Emirates alliance has been a great success,” Joyce said.
“Emirates has given 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.”
Alan Joyce, Qantas Chief Executive
Emirates’ President Sir Tim Clark concurred, saying that the partnership continues to be a “success story”, which will deliver more “choice and value to customers”.
“Emirates has worked with Qantas on these network changes,” he explained.
“We see an opportunity to offer customers an even stronger product proposition for travel to Dubai, and onward connectivity to our extensive network in Europe, Middle East and Africa. We will announce updates in the coming weeks.”
Tickets for the Flying Kangaroo’s new service go on sale tomorrow.