Massive change coming to Qantas
Qantas passengers could be in for a massive change in coming years, with Emirates president Tim Clark admitting the Aussie airline’s introduction of non-stop, globe-spanning flights could challenge their alliance.
Qantas has already dropped stopovers in Dubai (Emirates’ base) in favour of Singapore for its London-bound flights to “meet the strong demand we’re seeing in Asia,” according to CEO Alan Joyce.
However, Clark said Qantas’ move to capitalise on the expanding Asian market was not indicative of a weakened relationship between the two major airlines, who struck the deal in 2012.
“Alan was starting to realise that the partnership was so strong, with our metal doing so much in the west for him, that it was perhaps a good time to rethink their strategy,” Clark told Fairfax Media.
In August, Qantas and Emirates renewed their alliance, signing on for another five years. This will maintain code sharing on all Emirates flights, but not Qantas’ Singapore to London or non-stop Perth to London routes.
Clark believes Joyce will introduce more Europe-bound services out of Perth, with Qantas flagging non-stop flights to Paris and Germany in the next couple of years.
The Flying Kangaroo also wants to introduce non-stop routes to Europe from Sydney and Melbourne using modified Boeing’s 777-8X or Airbus A350-900ULR crafts.
However, Clark admits Qantas’ introduction of further non-stop flights will likely affect Emirates’ operations in Australia, saying it will be “interesting” to see how it works out.
“Will that affect what we do out of Australia into those cities, because he’ll be going non-stop and we’ll have an intermediate point – our hub, is anybody’s guess. If the market grows, there’s plenty for all. If it flatlines or goes south, all of us have to go into a reset mode.”