QF to Europe returns to the Kangaroo Route (via SIN)

[Brettmcg]

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. As previously announced, Qantas’ existing Melbourne-Dubai-London service will be replaced with its Dreamliner service flying Melbourne-Perth-London.
A detailed summary of the changes, including effective dates, is provided at the end of this release.
Customer demand for flights between Australia and Dubai will remain well served by the 77 weekly services that Emirates operates from five cities – Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney – including seven daily A380 flights. Qantas passengers will still be able to fly on Emirates to Dubai, where they have access to over 60 onward connections on Emirates to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Full story here: https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-and-emirates-to-extend-partnership/

 

[justinbrett]

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. As previously announced, Qantas’ existing Melbourne-Dubai-London service will be replaced with its Dreamliner service flying Melbourne-Perth-London.
A detailed summary of the changes, including effective dates, is provided at the end of this release.
Customer demand for flights between Australia and Dubai will remain well served by the 77 weekly services that Emirates operates from five cities – Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney – including seven daily A380 flights. Qantas passengers will still be able to fly on Emirates to Dubai, where they have access to over 60 onward connections on Emirates to Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Full story here: https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-and-emirates-to-extend-partnership/

This is really good news. I hope it includes codesharing on BA services - they'd be crazy not to.

 

[blackcat20]

Interesting that QF have dumped DXB as their transit point to LHR completely.

 

[justinbrett]

Interesting how they worded the press release - they are completely pulling out of DXB but you wouldn't get that from the title

 

[rock86]

Interesting that QF have dumped DXB as their transit point to LHR completely.

It won't disappear (obviously), but is it a sign of an impending reduction to QF/EK partnership benefits (pure speculation)??

 

[Mattg]

Well I did not see this coming! Personally I'm very happy to see the A380 return to the SYD-SIN and MEL-SIN routes, and I do prefer the SIN stop over DXB on the way to Europe.

Having said that, the connectivity provided via the DXB hub to all those secondary European cities has been fantastic. It will be shame not to have the option to fly QF metal to DXB when connecting to other EK services. This move does make the EK alliance seem a little pointless.

Sign of an impending reduction to QF/EK partnership?? (pure speculation)

Nope, they've just extended the alliance for another 5 years.

 

[Pleb Status]

It is not April 1 is it!

Restoring the A330 PER-SIN would also help feed this service...

https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/media-releases/qantas-and-emirates-to-extend-partnership/


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).

 

[toasty]

So MEL isn't getting screwed after all. A choice of the A380 or B787 all the way.

 

[justinbrett]

Well I did not see this coming! Personally I'm very happy to see the A380 return to the SYD-SIN and MEL-SIN routes, and I do prefer the SIN stop over DXB on the way to Europe.

Having said that, the connectivity provided via the DXB hub to all those secondary European cities has been fantastic. It will be shame not to have the option to fly QF metal to DXB when connecting to other EK services. This move does make the EK alliance seem a little pointless.



Nope, they've just extended the alliance for another 5 years.

Extended by duration - but massive reduction in integration. The alliance will be similar to reverse of the AA alliance pre-2016, where Qantas operated the long haul flights exclusively, AA only benifited from the codeshare and domestic feeders. It was a pretty good deal for Qantas at the time.

 

[moa999]

So more seats from MEL-LHR than SYD-LHR.
Who said QF was SYD centric

 

[Dr Ralph]

Interesting that QF have dumped DXB as their transit point to LHR completely.

More than interesting. I'd say about time!

 

[SeatBackForward]

The QF+EK partenrship was always a bit funny, being outside the OW alliance.

 

[tm.smile]

I think the changes in the alliance highlight how much stronger Qantas International has become and its ability to get more out of the deal. EK is still the fastest choice for most people who aren't flying into LHR, so that positions QF well by placing their code on EK metal. There is also a clear Asia focus at the moment for international, and placing more capacity to SIN also strengthens their place in Asia, particularly with onward connections on 3K and towards India on 9W.

 

[Bundy Bear]

Great news, completely unexpected.

 

[Virgin Bart]

Wow really??!!! This is GREAT!!

 

[Pablo]

I love this. I do find it interesting though that they will fly an A380 from Mel-Sin return. I suppose it's just about capacity, but interesting move.

 

[kamchatsky]

Question is, is this considered as an "enhancement"?

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Great News, with survey after survey concluding that SIN was (and likely to remain) the preferred stop-over destination enroute to London for the overwhelming majority of the Australian travelling public.

The only downside, I can see, is whilst the QF SIN lounge is only a few years old since its refurbishment, it does not have quite the facilities and space as the EK ones do in DXB.

But nonethesss, SIN has the BA lounge available for OW flyers in addition to the QF lounge in terminal 1.

And lets face it, SIN airport is a great airport to transit through with its great facilities available to all, including the cactus garden and is generally an oasis of calmness.

 

[justinbrett]

So looks like there will be 2x BA and 1x QF flights all operating SIN-LHR within a two hour period. You'd have to think they'll work towards a joint venture (or JV light) deal. I'm also assuming they'll get traffic rights from SIN-LHR?

With 3x flights you'd think it'd be smart for one of them to be retimed for an afternoon arrival into LHR. You'd also have to think Jetstar (AU) could resume flights from DRW and CNS to SIN with a QF codeshare. Even ADL-SIN could be viable once again.

 

[BD1959]

It is not April 1 is it!

My first thought too!

Regards,

BD