Qantas to Reroute Sydney - London Service via Singapore

Qantas and Emirates have unveiled plans to extend their cornerstone partnership for another five years.

The key change will see the airlines better leveraging each other’s networks, by providing three options to Europe – via Dubai, Perth and Singapore.

Qantas will re-route its daily Sydney-London A380 service via Singapore rather than Dubai and upgrade its existing daily Melbourne-Singapore flight from an A330 to an A380.

Qantas’ existing Melbourne-Dubai-London service will be replaced with its Dreamliner service flying Melbourne-Perth-London.

Qantas customers in Hong Kong will now also have the option to travel to London via Singapore, flying Jetstar from Hong Kong to Singapore and then on to London on Qantas.

Due to traffic right restrictions, Emirates cannot code on Qantas’ Perth-London or Singapore-London service but its customers can redeem frequent flyer points on these routes as part of the partnership.

Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, said, “The first five years of the Qantas-Emirates alliance has been a great success. 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. Improvements in aircraft technology mean the Qantas network will eventually feature a handful of direct routes between Australia and Europe, 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.”

The airlines will shortly seek re-authorisation from relevant regulators, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to continue coordination of pricing, schedules, sales and tourism marketing, under an expanded partnership.

Tickets for Qantas’ new services via Singapore will be available from the middle of September 2017.

Customers with existing bookings impacted by the changes will be re-accommodated onto the new services or will be given the option to change their flights.

Key Changes in Effect from March 2018

- The choice of three hub options between Australia and UK/Europe – Dubai, Perth and Singapore.

- From 25 March 2018, QF 1/2 A380 service will operate Sydney – London via Singapore, replacing one of the existing Sydney – Singapore A330 services. The second Sydney –Singapore daily service will continue to be operated by an A330 aircraft.

- From 25 March 2018, one daily Qantas Melbourne – Singapore 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).

Key Partnership Stats Since its Authorisation in 2013

- More than eight million passengers have travelled on the joint network, travelling more than 65 billion kilometres.

- Frequent Flyer members of both airlines have earned and used points flying on more than five million flights, travelling over 47 billion kilometres on the joint network.

- On average more than 10,000 Emirates passengers have travelled on Qantas’ domestic and regional services within Australia each month, increasing to 20,000 during peak periods.

- Customers can access over 2,000 routes on the joint network.

- For Emirates customers, the partnership opens up access to over 60 Australian destinations that Emirates does not serve, and for Qantas customers, it gives access to over 40 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, not served by Qantas.

Codeshare Destinations

Together Qantas and Emirates provide customers with more than 100 codeshare destinations including:

- 33 codeshare destinations in Europe
- 60 codeshare destinations in Australia and New Zealand
- 14 codeshare destinations in Africa and the Middle East
- 2 codeshare destinations in Asia.

Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline, said, “The Emirates-Qantas 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 partnership. Emirates has worked with Qantas on these network changes. 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. Customers of both airlines will continue to benefit from the power of our joint network, from our respective products, and reciprocal frequent flyer benefits.”

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