Five year renewal allows coordination of passenger and cargo operations.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has just announced the granting of re-authorisation for the alliance between Qantas Airways and Emirates.
The five year renewal covers Qantas and Emirates’ air passenger and cargo transport operations, with the terms of the authorisation granted largely unchanged from last month’s draft decision.
“The continued coordination by Qantas and Emirates of their air passenger and cargo transport operations will likely lead to a range of public benefits such as improved connectivity and loyalty program benefits,” said ACCC Commissioner Roger Featherston.
The ACCC has imposed a condition requiring the carriers to report on seats and passengers flown, fares and route profitability on routes between Australia and New Zealand, allowing the ACCC to set a minimum level of capacity on the Sydney to Christchurch route at any time if required.
The reauthorisation comes just before tomorrow’s inaugural Qantas non-stop commercial flight from Perth to London, which has seen significant changes to the QF and EK pact as Qantas withdraws its flights to Dubai to instead once again operate from the east coast to London via Singapore.
More details in today’s issue of Travel Daily.