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.