Emirates and Qantas extend partnership

Qantas and Emirates will extend their cornerstone partnership for a further five years, giving customers and frequent flyers of both airlines access to a huge joint network.

The airlines have existing approvals from regulators to operate a joint business until March 2023. Qantas and Emirates will seek re-authorisation from relevant regulators, among them the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to continue the core elements of the partnership including coordination of pricing, schedules, sales and tourism marketing on approved routes until 2028. The deal includes an option to renew for a further five years beyond that.

Together, both airlines are making millions of reward seats available for frequent flyers to access more than 100 destinations by using their Qantas Points or Skywards Miles, which many have been stockpiling throughout the pandemic.

For Emirates customers, the deal provides access to over 55 Australian destinations that Emirates does not fly to, and Qantas customers are able to fly on Emirates to Dubai and access over 50 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa that Qantas does not serve.

Emirates and Qantas partnership to continue
The agreement was signed by Emirates president Tim Clark and Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce
Emirates Airlines

“The extension of our partnership with Qantas is testament to its success. It also reflects our commitment to ensure customers travelling to and from Australia, a market which we have served for 25 years, continue to have the best connections and frequent flyer benefits. Despite the challenges of the past 18 months, today’s announcement reinforces that Emirates is here for the long-haul,” said Emirates Airlines president Sir Tim Clark.

Referring to the agreement as ‘one of the most significant bilateral partnerships in aviation’, Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce added: “The premise of our partnership with Emirates has always been that no airline can fly everywhere but combined we can fly to most of the places our joint customers want to travel to. And that we treat each other’s customers as our own.

“We know the international aviation market will take years to fully recover so close collaboration between airline partners is going to be more important than ever.”