QR flags codeshare alliance with Qantas.
Qatar Airways ceo Akbar Al Baker has this afternoon confirmed the Doha-based carrier will seek a strategic partnership with Qantas Airways, with talks planned for next week.
Al Baker told media today at a press conference in Perth that a codeshare pact with Qantas would have twofold benefits, enabling the Australian flag carrier to expand its European network, while QR could increase its options into Australia.
The planned alliance would take into account QR’s new Perth service (which launched yesterday and will go daily from 02 Dec) and its two-year-old Melbourne route, as well as possibly tapping into some of QF’s Singapore traffic, Al Baker said.
The proposed partnership would cover “joint flights” and placing the QF code on QR metal and vice versa – including QR coding on QF’s Australian domestic network, he suggested.
“We have been meeting with Qantas for quite some time” Al Baker said, with further planned talks involving senior Qatar Airways executives at the Qantas headquarters in Sydney next week.
More information in tomorrow’s Travel Daily.