Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has confirmed it plans to seek approval to extend its partnership with Emirates (EK, Dubai International) for another five years. Existing authorization, granted in March 2013, will expire on March 31, 2018.

In a statement issued following talks with the Emirati carrier in Sydney this week, Qantas said the airlines will shortly seek re-authorisation from relevant regulators, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to continue coordination of pricing, schedules, sales and tourism marketing, under an expanded partnership.

On the basis of the 2013 approval, Emirates has codeshare access to sixty Australian destinations that it does not serve, while Qantas has codeshare access to over forty cities in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa that it does not serve.

“Our partnership has evolved to a point where Qantas no longer needs to fly its own aircraft through Dubai, and that means we can redirect some of our A380 flying into Singapore and meet the strong demand we’re seeing in Asia," Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said. “Improvements in aircraft technology mean the Qantas network will eventually feature a handful of direct routes between Australia and Europe, but this will never overtake the sheer number of destinations served by Emirates and that’s why Dubai will remain an important hub for our customers.”

In light of Joyce's comments, under their proposed amended partnership, effective March 25, 2018, Qantas will re-route its daily Sydney Kingsford Smith-London Heathrow A380-800 service via Singapore Changi rather than Dubai International. The second Sydney–Singapore daily service will continue to be operated by an A330 aircraft. Also effective from the same date, one daily Qantas Melbourne – Singapore service will be upgraded from an A330 to an A380 (QF35/36), with the second 3x weekly service increased to a daily A330 service (QF37/38).

It is recalled that with the arrival of its first B787-9s set for the final quarter of this year, Qantas’ existing A380-operated Melbourne-Dubai-London Heathrow service will be replaced with its mooted B787-9-operated Melbourne-Perth-London Heathrow route.

The net result is that Qantas passengers to Europe will now have a choice of three gateways namely Dubai, Perth International, and Singapore.

Should these amendments be implemented, Qantas estimates its annualized net benefit from its 2019 Financial Year onwards will be more than AUD80 million Australian dollars.