Qatar Airways to acquire 25% of Virgin Australia

[elanshin]

The network map VA provides in the application looks interesting. Basically SQ has all of Asia (India included). NH still on the map. UA has NA and QR has EU/Africa.

 

[justinbrett]

The network map VA provides in the application looks interesting. Basically SQ has all of Asia (India included). NH still on the map. UA has NA and QR has EU/Africa.

I still can’t get over the fact they dumped SA.

Could a SA/QF partnership be back on the cards once again? Really no less competition than QF/LA, actually less of an issue as SA only flies to PER.

 

[HS-TQE]

I agree and I suspect the next thing that will be enhanced will the the SQ KrisFlyer trap door / escape hatch transfer….. or they just enhance the transfer rate to something awful.

I just hope they give enough notice for members to get their points out of Velocity.

Could possibly be devalued as a potential Velocity/Avios (or Qpoints) transfer could be implemented by VA's incoming 'new masters' as the primary transfer program with a different rate to a devalued Velocity/Krisflyer transfer program.

 

[elanshin]

I still can’t get over the fact they dumped SA.

Could a SA/QF partnership be back on the cards once again? Really no less competition than QF/LA, actually less of an issue as SA only flies to PER.

Oh SA is still on the map, unless we have another airline they partner with that flies from PER to JNB, so I don't know if they miswrote something or the intern forgot to wipe it from the route map.

 

[elanshin]

I don't expect anything to come out of SQ side until things are finalised here and then they'd look to review the situation. Would make no sense until VA finalises something.

Whether anything changes would really be up to SQ and how they feel about all this. They could be perfectly fine with the position as well.

Thinking about it, SQ is likely sitting there processing everything. The QR restrictions are big too but so is VA's massive change in the loyalty scheme.

If ever SQ wants to swipe a bunch of VA elites - offer Status match, push Krysflyer and they may get a big chunk. After all they know how many VA flyers pop in VFF on SQ bookings which will now be severely limited for SC.

 

[justinbrett]

Oh SA is still on the map, unless we have another airline they partner with that flies from PER to JNB, so I don't know if they miswrote something or the intern forgot to wipe it from the route map.

Hopefully the intern didn’t write the ACCC application!

It didn’t seem very polished to be honest.

 

[HS-TQE]

In a "what if" type of scenario, SQ also had the opportunity to acquire Velocity Frequent Flyer (separate business that was not part of the VA 1.0 administration) as a separate acquistion during their parent's (VA1.0) administration had SQ/Krisflyer wanted to acquire an Australian FF base to add their parent carrier (SQ) FFs.

 

[Bagpuss]

I still can’t get over the fact they dumped SA.

Could a SA/QF partnership be back on the cards once again? Really no less competition than QF/LA, actually less of an issue as SA only flies to PER.

When VA was in administration a friend of mine worked for SQ. They kept saying bad things about Virgin and how SQ was unhappy with them and going to ditch them.
I didn't expect SQ to ditch them and obviously the relationship remained and ramped back up.
To me it seems Virgin and Qatar now have the upper hand if this all goes through.

SQ is a good airline and business model which runs out of Singapore. Mostly, all their other attempts Virgin Atlantic / Virgin Australia / Tiger Australia etc have all failed. I doubt SQ would want to re-invest in Virgin Australia again (aka 25% Qatar, 20% SIA, etc).

The application specifically states it doesn't stop Virgin becoming a member of OneWorld / Star Alliance / Sky Team etc.

 

[HS-TQE]

The application specifically states it doesn't stop Virgin becoming a member of OneWorld / Star Alliance / Sky Team etc.

True, but I (or many other armchair watchers) wouldn't predict Virgin to join any Alliance anytime soon, considering the pending 'new masters' Qatar Airways coming in, as some would assume Qatar would take over the "day to day" running of VA, despite Bain still having the controlling stake for now.

 

[justinbrett]

Oh SA is still on the map, unless we have another airline they partner with that flies from PER to JNB, so I don't know if they miswrote something or the intern forgot to wipe it from the route map.

Having looked at it further I think SA is still gone. The map is marked current, not proposed.

The QR maps clearly show connections between Australia including Perth to South Africa.

I think the text saying no airline in Africa is the authority.

 

[HS-TQE]

The short-lived SA/VA codeshare may be the shortest-running resumption ever, considering the PER-JNB route was not on the map for VA post-COVID, well before the QR investment and during the SA announcement of their intentions to return to PER.

 

[RooFlyer]

Qatar Airways coming in, as some would assume Qatar would take over the "day to day" running of VA,

I would expect QR would have a significant amount of influence on the appointment of the next CEO, and that’s really all they need.

 

[justinbrett]

The application specifically states it doesn't stop Virgin becoming a member of OneWorld / Star Alliance / Sky Team etc.

That part was hilarious.

 

[BrianQQ]

The application specifically states it doesn't stop Virgin becoming a member of OneWorld / Star Alliance / Sky Team etc.

 

[HS-TQE]

Safe to say that for those long wishing (sufferring) for VA to join teh Star Alliance, will have to cross that off their wish list for the foreseeable future,

VA could've never been further away than the *A with the pending QR purchase then during the VA 1.0 days when VA had a Skyteam partner JV with DL plus ownership influence from the James Hogan-led EY.

 

[Digicola]

I’ve often tried to better understand what SQ stands to gain/lose with/without a finger in the VA pie. As it stands SQ pretty much gets the best of all worlds:

-No liability through their ownership of VA so they are shielded from risk to the business.
-They can siphon off VA loyalists flying westbound.
-By being the only (and best) partner that can get VFFs west of Bali there’s little chance VA will change asian partners because it would be a huge loss.
-Codeshare or not, having VFF benefits on SQ means SQ is a very attractive option. In fact it is in SQ’s interest to have as many people book directly than via a VA codeshare where VA will clip the ticket and take a share of revenue.

But theres another more subtle advantage to the current situation.
By having VA out of *A yet maintaining a close partnership with VFF they’re effectively able to attract many VFFs to switch over to them. Things like the *A credit card offer an incentive for affluent loyalists to switch to Krisflyer. They maintain quasi full benefits on VA and most partners, also getting access to NZ. And keep them locked into SQ’s ecosystem. They’ve been growing things such as Kris+ which I see as a move to gain a bigger share of Australian flyers.

Effectively, the current setup works for SQ and is a very safe arrangement. VA will move a bit away from VA with this deal and SQ is probably ok with it due to their position.

SQ has flights to every relevant major port down under and can operate to more ports than QR thanks to openskies, and much lower costs due to sector lengths. Theres no doubt AU is a strategically important market for SQ but its also one that is very much locked in for them as they really are one of the only practical alternatives to QF and they have proven to be reliable and have built their brand quasi without hiccups over the years (minus the turbulence scandal which they are fighting tooth and nail to cover up and settle behind closed doors) very much unlike QR which is dragged through the media every second week.

I still think VA joining *A down the line isn’t completely unlikely and might be strategically significant if there is too much VFF bleed towards Krisflyer.

 

[Warragul]

It would be very unusual for a FF partner to be restricted to specific routes/regions.

More problematic will be the reduced SC earn on SQ, compounded with the changes to earning and retaining VA status post Oct 2025.

Yes.

If it works for you, QR ex-PER gives close to full QF SCs (120 SC in J PER-DOH) compared to East Coast (SYD/MEL/BNE-DOH 80 SCs in J) and ADL with 90 SC.

Thanks. Would be ex SIN, which I forgot to say initially.

 

[SCM]

Somehow missed this thread, can someone recap what are the thoughts on EY?

I am assuming any tickets booked before April 2025 will be honored for SCs and points. I'm also wondering about F lounge access, since this is really the main reason I like flying EY now, in terms of what kind of timeframe is safe for that

https://emojipedia.org/thinking-face​

 

[jase05]

Somehow missed this thread, can someone recap what are the thoughts on EY?

I am assuming any tickets booked before April 2025 will be honored for SCs and points. I'm also wondering about F lounge access, since this is really the main reason I like flying EY now, in terms of what kind of timeframe is safe for that

Thinking Face Emoji​

I would think that of and when approval happens it would be pretty much instantly that benefits disappear completely. I would doubt that F lounge access for VA Plats is still around by April

 

[Human]

Somehow missed this thread, can someone recap what are the thoughts on EY?

I am assuming any tickets booked before April 2025 will be honored for SCs and points. I'm also wondering about F lounge access, since this is really the main reason I like flying EY now, in terms of what kind of timeframe is safe for that

Thinking Face Emoji​

The only recent and relevant data point I can think of is Virgin’s ending its partnership with Delta. This was announced on December 14, 2021, and took effect as of June 12, 2022. So that was six months’ notice.

More recently, Virgin announced its plans to overhaul Velocity and most of changes were announced in October 2024 to take place in April 2025 and October 2025. So that gives you an indication of the amount of notice that VA would be inclined to give for any discontinuation or change of benefits with EY.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that this is what will happen with EY, but I can imagine that there would be some sort of outcry if Virgin didn’t provide at least a few months’ notice and/or honour existing bookings.