Qantas link delivers a lot more Aussies to Dubai

DUBAI-BASED powerhouse Emirates says 360,000 more Australians visited the Gulf city in the wake of its alliance with Qantas

DUBAI-BASED powerhouse Emirates says 360,000 more Australians visited the Gulf city in the wake of its alliance with Qantas and they are its fastest-growing inbound market.

Emirates president Tim Clark said the relationship between the carriers was a good one.

He added, however, that the strength of the commercial linkage had been masked by Qantas’s restructuring and job losses.

He pointed to improvements such as the rescheduling of Qantas’s Melbourne flights to better feed into Emirates’ bank of outgoing flights.

“There is a very high level of focus on what goes on in a high degree of detail,’’ he said.

Mr Clark said Australian passengers connecting in Dubai tended to get off the plane, whereas this was not always the case in Singapore.

“We know we had 360,000 Australians get off last year that we didn’t have before,’’ he said. “It is the fastest-growing inbound market to Dubai, coincidental with the start of the Qantas relationship.’’

Asked about moves by Abu Dhabi-based competitor Etihad to boost capacity to Australia with new flights to Perth and the introduction of the A380, Mr Clark said there were capacity issues not just in Oceania but in Asia.

“I think we will watch with interest what happens,’’ he said.

“A market can only take so much. We’ve successfully grown our business into Australia and we’ve been doing that since 1996.’’

Mr Clark said there were no plans to seek extra flights into Australia and the airline would use its Airbus A380s to expand the business.

“But we’ve got to be mindful we’re not overcooking the whole thing,’’ he said.