Qatar Airways to acquire 25% of Virgin Australia

[HS-TQE]

Speaking of Australian opportunities for the SQ group; OOL, NTL and MCY are also seasonal options for SQ (although may probably be subject to aviation fund funding from those states and those Airports) despite OOL failing for TR not long ago.

Getting back on topic: VA's NH partnership is also another one that is lacklustre and could be subject to 'not sticking around' on NH's decision (i.e their own struggling loads outside of peak season) rather than QR's.

 

[justinbrett]

Speaking of Australian opportunities for the SQ group; OOL, NTL and MCY are also seasonal options for SQ (although may probably be subject to aviation fund funding from those states and those Airports) despite OOL failing for TR not long ago.

Getting back on topic: VA's NH partnership is also another one that is lacklustre and could be subject to 'not sticking around' on NH's decision (i.e their own struggling loads outside of peak season) rather than QR's.

Maybe SQ, NZ and UA could start up a new Australian airline that’s in *A from the start. Call it Ansett!

Someone see if Vanessa Amorosi‘s available…

 

[Digicola]

Fact: VA's services to Abu Dhabi failed.
Fact: QF discontinued its flights to Dubai (whether you want to call that a "failure" or not is debatable and probably depends on your definitions).

QF discontinuing DXB was due to a disagreement. The current arrangement (mostly) works better for all parties involved.

QR was always going to want to take over the lion’s share of westbound traffic. I’ve long suggested that SQ take a defensive 25% stake but we’d soon get back to VA 1.0 problems.

Codeshare allocations on flights between AU and EU are very limited, VA has to split their legal allotment between SQ and QR (which is why EY was dropped in the first place) and thanks to this deal the SQ allotment will likely be reduced.

 

[HS-TQE]

Maybe SQ, NZ and UA could start up a new Australian airline that’s in *A from the start. Call it Ansett!

Someone see if Vanessa Amorosi‘s available…

Get Hoppa, Buckley a few other former NRL/AFL and Cricket players to walk in front of a Ansett plane and there ya go.

 

[HS-TQE]

QR was always going to want to take over the lion’s share of westbound traffic. I’ve long suggested that SQ take a defensive 25% stake but we’d soon get back to VA 1.0 problems.

Considering the AFR reports that Bain reps approached SQ directly as an alternative for QR for a direct 'cornerstone' stake and that they declined suggests they aren't willing to pump hundreds of millions on a 4th go at the Australian after failing the first three times.

SQ would 'had' been stuck in a hard place 'in the past', but their experiences in those failures in Australia probably had them investigate if they could fly to the larger regional Australian cities themselves rather than invest in a local Australian partner for the 4th time.

 

[zsw]

Losing SQ benefits would have a decent impact on a lot of velocity members on top of the 'refresh' from last week. I know a lot of people who make redemptions or cash tickets to Asia on SQ largely due to lounge & priority benefits. I'm sure Velocity has some insight into this and I would be surprised if they weren't aware of the importance of keeping these benefits to maintain some level of member happiness.

My reading of the submission is that SQ isn't being removed as a partner or having loyalty benefits removed, just that Qatar will be the only airline headquartered in the ME and Europe which will offer loyalty benefits and codeshare. I think the use of headquartered is very deliberate here, if it was any airline that flew to Europe that is a different story.

I do think SQ redemptions with Velocity points will no longer be offered for flights anywhere West of India, everything will be shifted across to Qatar.

As others have raised VA's attempt as Abu Dhabi flights didn't end great, nor were QF's to Dubai a resounding success. Wet lease or not VA and Qatar are probably putting some of the above in to ensure that they are actually a success.

 

[elanshin]

Losing SQ benefits would have a decent impact on a lot of velocity members on top of the 'refresh' from last week. I know a lot of people who make redemptions or cash tickets to Asia on SQ largely due to lounge & priority benefits. I'm sure Velocity has some insight into this and I would be surprised if they weren't aware of the importance of keeping these benefits to maintain some level of member happiness.

My reading of the submission is that SQ isn't being removed as a partner or having loyalty benefits removed, just that Qatar will be the only airline headquartered in the ME and Europe which will offer loyalty benefits and codeshare. I think the use of headquartered is very deliberate here, if it was any airline that flew to Europe that is a different story.

The real question here is - Is this change for VA and its customers or for Bain. Remember that there are very different goals in mind for the two parties. Whats good for QR and Bain may not be the best option for VA long term.

As others have raised VA's attempt as Abu Dhabi flights didn't end great, nor were QF's to Dubai a resounding success. Wet lease or not VA and Qatar are probably putting some of the above in to ensure that they are actually a success.

QR gets additional flights that they've wanted (and likely has data to back up the need) . On top of that, they would have locked out a lot of their ME competitors just as Australia is coming into their radar.

TK is already looking into the Australian market, they're not ideal yet as a 2 hop airline but the plans to fly direct to IST then europe is their plan once they get the aircraft. Also, I do think QR sees RX as a very serious threat and thus locking out a potential future Australian partner. RX has the money and position to parallel QRs own rise over the next 5-10 years.