Emirates and Qantas have marked the official start of their historic partnership, with the first Qantas flights departing from Sydney and Melbourne to London via the international hub of Dubai on 31 March 2013.
The partnership marks a new era for Qantas and Emirates, and for global aviation, as the two carriers collaborate to deliver the best network, lounges, frequent flyer benefits and travel experiences.
Combined the two airlines will offer 98 flights a week between Australia and Dubai. Customers have already responded very strongly to the partnership, with over 212,086 sectors booked so far on the joint network. Qantas has seen a sixfold increase in bookings to Europe on the joint network in the first nine weeks of sales compared to the same period last year.
The number of Emirates customers booked to travel on Qantas’ domestic network is almost seven times higher than under Qantas’ previous partnership arrangement in the same nine week period.
Source: Emirates
* Photo above: Emirates and Qantas A380s parked at Concourse A, Dubai International Airport, the day after the start of the Emirates and Qantas partnership.