Qantas & Emirates Partnership from April 2013
 

QANTAS and Emirates

Qantas drop BA joint venture.

Qantas cancel FRA services and LHR service moves from Singapore to Dubai, however both carriers will still operate 7 daily A380 flights to LHR.

As they say "subject to regulatory approval" but, may I suggest, that if this goes ahead, it's a game changer for more than just BA.

Some serious money has been on the move ...

Now that has thrown out some interesting food for thought. Will QF pull from oneWorld? How will it affect Chiangi operation over all? If QF don't operate there will BA continue to operate there and continue to SYD or just cancel their operation and connect instead through HKG or NRT? How many other airlines will move towards the 'sandpit' with the allure and money power of the very rich airlines? No doubt a bit of a blow to BA but QF probably made the right decision.

Just read a massive thread on another airline website and my head is spinning now !!

It is my understanding that subject to regulatory approval from April 2013 there will be no more London Heathrow to Singapore flights ??

Qantas will operate 2x a day A380 flights from London Heathrow to Dubai and then on to Sydney/Melbourne ?? Aswell as Emirates having their 5x A380 flights a day to Dubai...

Very interesting, but this gives them access to all the regional UK airports too, which might well add up to more value than FRA?

What about PER? And how many of the DXB - SYD / MEL runs will be non-stop?

After reading some of this on other sites EK seems to be the big winner on this, QF don't really seem to gain much out of this.

I'm guessing BA will now be looking at a JV with CX now as they do seem to have an excellent route network from HKG into Australia.

The BBC's understanding is QF will pull out from alliances with BA, which will mean loosing One World.

BBC News - Qantas forms Emirates alliance as it seeks turnaround

Now does this mean the LHR base will close? Will QF come off the LHR HKG route? No mention of that anywhere. I guess it means more options for flyers from the regions to choose to fly QF/EK via DXB. Surely this can only be good news for them.

QF are to remain in OW, They also have not operated LHR to HKG for about two years now. Also QF will continue to London albeit via DXB opposed to SIN.

Other option for BA is a JV with MH once it joins OW.

EK and QF in alliance
 

QF divorced from BA and moving flights from SIN to DXB.
Comments?

QF get a full service international partner who wears the majority of the risk associated with an international airline business who also bring a reputation for excellence in service to load all their domestic fliers onto for overseas trips.

No real surprise there.

It was less than 6 months ago when British Airways cut down on its direct flights to Australia after axing its service from London to Sydney via Bangkok. BA now terminates at BKK with passengers wishing to fly on to Australia transferring to QF.

Under the current agreement, QF also stops in Bangkok and transfers passengers for LHR onto BA flights.

Seem to recall both carriers got rid of a lot of local staff too.Will be interesting to see if BA restarts the service.

Fatty will be in crisis talks with his creditors.

I suppose Fatty's loss will be Ravi's gain.

A very wise move in my opinion.

Watch out for a whole raft of changes from BA next year.

Some or all of these may come true........

Leave T3 at LHR. The BKK and SIN/SYD services only operate from there because of the JBA, thus retraction to T5 almost certain.

Restart operating to MEL. The "tagless" BKK service could easily extend to MEL as a stopgap whilst future plans are sorted.

Restart AKL. Your choice - over LAX or maybe KUL?

Order the B747-8i to operate Far east services that the A380 is too big for. (And 787 too small)

BKK/SIN may move to T5, but there's not a chance of BA restarting MEL. It was pulled because of poor performance years ago. AKL is already covered via a codeshare with Cathay Pacific from HKG.

It's not clear yet whether BA codeshares with Qantas from SIN will remain. Though as Qantas has said these services are to be retimed, the connections may not be competitive.

Aahh - so "poor performance years ago" is the arbiter of future performance?

Will this see BA cut back on its Australia services? Been several times on single tickets including some BA international legs + Qantas internal flights and it has always worked well. BA standalone into Australia becomes much less attractive for obvious reasons of jeopardising onward internal flights if you miss a connection.

The economics of the route haven't changed. One rotation ties up a single aircraft for three days. Hence why airlines at either end of the route have been gradually pulling out of Europe-Australia.

It's unlikely BA will return to a route it has already dropped twice before and no longer has a local partner to support it.

If (big if) that was to happen, surely KUL any day. From a simple SLF perspective, wonderful airport with its own internal rainforest! For practicalities, not TSA processing just to transit - doh!

For yield, KUL is a key Asian city in its own right + connections if MH joining one world. IIRC, doing the Kangaroo that way at present on MH involves around a 7 hour layover (not such a bad thing considering above!).

Noting BA have gone into ICN over any new Chinese cities, sniffing the higher incomes there.