The Australian carrier, Qantas will finally leave Dubai (DXB) on March 25, after four years of being a stopover for London and Sydney flights.
Qantas and Emirates had an alliance since April 2013 and from then, Dubai International Airport (DXB) became an important base for the network, but on August 2017 the Australian airline announced DXB replacement for Singapore (SIN).
The announcement came along with the shift of Melbourne-Dubai-London-Heathrow to Melbourne-Perth-London Heathrow. Qantas’ return to SIN will cause London and Sydney flights to stop in Asia, rather than the Middle East despite the alliance will keep on going. The airline said the decision was taken to “reflect customer demand.”
According to these, the airline announced on Tuesday a new S$ 5 million partnership with Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Changi Airport Group (CAG) “to promote Singapore as a destination and a connecting gateway to Asia, Europe, and Australia.”
However, Qantas Group CEO, Alan Joyce, said the partnership is aimed at boosting the number of people traveling through Singapore from Australia and the UK. Even though back in August, he said the Qantas-Emirates alliance is “a great success, Qantas’ 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.”
From now on, Qantas will operate over 50 return services in to and out of Changi Airport each week, making it one of the largest foreign airlines to operate out of SIN.
