Emirates and Qantas have marked the official start in their historic partnership, with the primary Qantas flights departing from Sydney and Melbourne to London via the international hub of Dubai.
The partnership marks a brand new era for Qantas and Emirates, and for global aviation, because the two carriers collaborate to deliver the only network, lounges, frequent flyer benefits and travel experiences.
“The strength of this partnership stems from the very fact the Emirates and Qantas brands are a good match. Emirates customers using a Qantas lounge or taking a Qantas flight will experience a degree of service this is on par with what they expect from Emirates,” said Tim Clark, president, Emirates Airline.
“Our two airlines offer the biggest joint fleet of Airbus A380s and passengers may be welcomed through Concourse A, the world’s first, purpose built A380 concourse, at Dubai International Airport, that’s the geographical centrepiece of the partnership,” added Clark.
“A major benefit is the variety of goods we’re offering frequent flyers. Customers of either airline can leverage a lot of their privileges after they fly at the joint network, including earning points, redeeming flights and accessing lounges.”
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Qantas chief executive, Alan Joyce, said the partnership would make long haul travel more seamless – and faster – for millions of Australians.
“From today, our customers from Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney have one-stop access to 65 destinations inside the Middle East, North Africa, the united kingdom and Europe via the joint Qantas and Emirates network.
“By travelling through Dubai, Qantas customers can connect with the extensive Emirates network into Europe and the united kingdom and fly on to their destination,” said Joyce.
“Before today, the Qantas network offered five one-stop codeshare destinations into Europe and the united kingdom with our partners. From today, we provide access to 32 destinations in Europe at the combined Qantas and Emirates network.
“The new network will cut average journey times by greater than two hours from Melbourne and Sydney to the end 10 destinations in Europe,” added Joyce.
Combined the 2 airlines will offer 98 flights per week between Australia and Dubai.
Customers have already responded very strongly to the partnership, with over 212,086 sectors booked thus far at the joint network.
Qantas has seen a six-fold increase in bookings to Europe at the joint network inside the first nine weeks of sales in comparison to an identical period last year.
The collection of Emirates customers booked to travel on Qantas’ domestic network is nearly seven times higher than under Qantas’ previous partnership arrangement inside the same nine week period.
More information at the deal are available here.