Qantas Airways has ditched Dubai and opted for Singapore for its flights to London. Singapore as such has deeper trade ties with Australia. Lot of island nation’s poultry, fruits, vegetables, grains and other consumables and commodities come from Australia.
Making this announcement today, the Australian national carrier will fly from Sydney to London through Singapore instead of the Middle East under a renegotiated alliance with Emirates.
The step has been taken as there has been consistent increase in travel demand in Asia and Qantas intends to capitalise the market.
The new deal will see Australia’s national airline re-route its Sydney to London A380 service via Singapore and upgrade its existing Melbourne to Singapore flight from an A330 to an A380 from March 25.
Commenting on the partnership with Emirates, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said, “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.”
He added, “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.”
Qantas passengers will be given the choice of hubbing through Perth, Singapore or Dubai with Emirates on trips to Europe.
Perth passengers will be able to fly non-stop to London on the Qantas 787 from March or via Singapore to connect with the Qantas A380 or to Europe on a code-share flight with Emirates via Dubai.
Qantas had already announced that it was replacing its Melbourne to Dubai to London service with its ultra-long-haul Melbourne to Perth to London Boeing 787 Dreamliner flights.
The new alliance will deliver to Qantas more than A$80 million ($63 million) annually in net benefits, starting from the year ending June 2019, the airline said.