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Move part of strategy to boost service on London route, switch capacity to Asian markets
By Cleofe Maceda, Senior Web Reporter
Dubai: Australian carrier Qantas Airways has plans to drop the Melbourne-Dubai-London flights it is currently operating with Emirates in order to boost its services on the UK route and meet high demand from the Asian market.
The move also comes in the wake of heightened security measures that affect flyers from Dubai and other parts of the Middle East.
The Aussie carrier revealed the plans on Thursday when it announced the sale of tickets for its upcoming non-stop flights between Perth and London, which will begin on March 24, 2018.
The new Perth-London service will fly passengers from Melbourne to the UK and back without passing through Dubai, eventually reducing the travel time by more than one hour.
The new QF9/10 will replace Qantas existing Melbourne-Dubai-London services, Qantas said in a statement released on Thursday.
With a faster flying time and quicker connections in Perth, customers travelling to London from Melbourne will reduce their total travel time by more than an hour compared with existing Qantas A380 services.
The airlines A380 that currently serves the Melbourne-London route will be redeployed to meet periods of high demand from Melbourne and Sydney to destinations in Asia, such as Singapore and Hong Kong, Qantas added.
The airline, however, assured that its partnership with Emirates will continue to deliver services for the European market.
Qantas customers in Melbourne will have the option to fly with partner Emirates on Qantas code to Dubai and then direct nearly 40 destinations in Europe. Emirates is up-gauging its third daily flight from the Victorian city from a Boeing 777-300ER to an A380 service from the 25th March, 2018.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the route will boost tourism in Australia and meet the growing demand from travellers. He noted that since its announcement in December 2016, the Perth-London service had attracted a lot of interest.
This route makes Western Australia a new tourism gateway for Australia. We know from our research that theres a lot of appetite to explore the West, not just from British and European visitors but also from Aussies on their way to London. A lot of business travellers, particularly in the resources sector, will stop off in Perth on their way to the UK.
Gulf News 2017
