Qatar Airways to acquire 25% of Virgin Australia

[AVV]

I hope that , as advised that Virgin will not be servicing the in flight service , meals etc. Am glad travelling on QR before this happens. Virgin are the last service airline I would use. Will QR still be a One World carrier? Travelling shortly to Doha. Would only use QR flights and crew.

 

[oz_mark]

I suspect they will want tickets to be open for sale shortly for the upcoming EU summer.

I think there's a lot of dotting i's and crossing t's to happen before they go on sale.

 

[justinbrett]

I hope that , as advised that Virgin will not be servicing the in flight service , meals etc. Am glad travelling on QR before this happens. Virgin are the last service airline I would use.

Likely it will all be QR, however that’s not a guarantee. The QF/AY wet lease has QF catering, bedding, IFE etc. But since VA don’t have their own long haul services that wouldn’t make sense to reinvent the wheel.

Will QR still be a One World carrier? Travelling shortly to Doha. Would only use QR flights and crew.

QR would remain a oneworld carrier however these flights would not be oneworld flights as they are “operated by VA” (under wet lease from QR).

So no QF lounges, no crediting to non-QF oneworld FF programs (unless their rules permit codeshares. QF doesn’t). No oneworld status recognition.

 

[p--and--t]

At the risk of sounding like a scratched record...

You're attempting to make a case (which I think is weak) regarding why it's not necessary that QR be allowed more flights.

That's very different from saying that it's necessary that they NOT be allowed more flights.

Are you saying that Qatar should be stopped and that the Government should deny VA's request?

I don't want to be rude but I am not making a case for or against QR. I like travelling on QR.

I have said, in my view, this is not really about what QR might want or tried to lobby to get.

While QR might be owned by Qatar, they are not the Qatar government, they are an airline. It's what the gov to gov interactions machinations and perceived benefits for the individual nations is what is (allegedly) drives landing rights decisions, not what J or elite passengers might prefer to travel on.

You raised the issue of slots. My understanding is SYD is slot constrained. If that is the case then I can see why there might be a case to allocate slots to a new entrant competitor as opposed to giving additional slots to an existing airline already comfortable in the market place.

We are obviously not coming from the same perspective so I will leave it there.

In order not to bore other readers I will end my observations on this thread.