Qantas and Emirates will seek a further five-year extension of their joint aviation partnership with regulators, such as the ACCC, which will assist the airlines’ businesses recover from the impact of COVID-19. The arrangement provides benefits to the public, expanding the scope of each carriers’ networks across Australia, New Zealand, Europe and the UK.
Initially authorised in 2013 and then extended for five years in 2018 (until 2023), the airlines said they will now seek to add another five years to their coordination agreement.
Emirates President Tim Clark and Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce signed the extension agreement at the IATA AGM being held in Boston at the moment.
The airlines will seek to continue the core elements of the partnership including coordination of pricing, schedules, sales and tourism marketing on approved routes until 2028. The deal includes an option to renew for another five years beyond that.
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Together, both airlines are making millions of reward seats available for frequent flyers to access more than 100 destinations to using their Qantas Points or Skywards Miles, which many have been stockpiling throughout the pandemic.
For Emirates customers, the deal provides access to over 55 Australian destinations that Emirates does not fly to, and Qantas customers are able to fly on Emirates to Dubai and access over 50 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, that Qantas does not fly to.
“Despite the challenges of the past 18 months, today’s announcement reinforces that Emirates is here for the long-haul,” said Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline.
“Our partnership seamlessly connects travellers to over one hundred destinations globally on our joint network, and offers a coordinated premium experience such as access to points and lounges. As borders re-open, we look forward to restoring our Australian flight schedules including our popular A380 services, and to welcoming customers to experience our best-in-class partnership for many more years to come,” Clark said.
Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, said: “This marks the continuation of one of the most significant bilateral partnerships in aviation. We called it ‘seismic’ when it launched in 2013 and it has been, especially in terms of what it’s meant for over 13 million people who have travelled on flights that form part of the deal.
“The premise of our partnership with Emirates has always been that no airline can fly everywhere but combined we can fly to most of the places our joint customers want to travel to. And that we treat each other’s customers as our own.
“We know the international aviation market will take years to fully recover so close collaboration between airline partners is going to be more important than ever.”
Since 2013, more than 13 million passengers have travelled on the joint network. On average more than 13,000 Emirates passengers have travelled on Qantas’ domestic and regional services within Australia each month.
Together, Qantas and Emirates provide customers with more than 100 codeshare destinations including 38 in the UK and Europe; 55 in Australia and New Zealand, 13 in Africa and the Middle East and two in Asia.