Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) has announced it has signed an agreement for the sale of its catering businesses to dnata, an aviation services company that is part of the Emirates Group.
The carrier said in a statement the transaction is subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
Qantas’ catering businesses include wholly-owned subsidiaries Q Catering Ltd and Snap Fresh Pty Ltd. Q Catering has centres at four Australian airports – Sydney, Melbourne Tullamarine, Brisbane International and Perth International, with its largest airline customer being Qantas itself. Snap Fresh is a state-of-the-art meal production plant in Queensland, specialising in Australian-made frozen meals for airlines and customers in the healthcare and food retail industries.
Qantas Domestic CEO, Andrew David, said the sale would enable Qantas to partner with a global firm with vast expertise in inflight catering and prioritise investing in the airline.
“We’ve always said that we would explore the sale of certain assets where it makes sense, just as we’ve done before, including with the sale of our catering facility in Cairns and Qantas Defence Services,” David said. “The catering businesses will benefit significantly from dnata’s global footprint, catering expertise, and ability to drive investment and growth for what is a core focus of its operation.”
Under the agreement, dnata will supply catering for Qantas flights for an initial period of ten years, and Qantas will continue to work with key suppliers in menu design and development.
dnata currently supplies catering for Qantas Group flights in Adelaide International, Canberra, London Heathrow, and Johannesburg O.R. Tambo.
The value of the sale was not disclosed.
