While Qantas has anointed Dubai as its new hub for flights to the UK and Europe under the landmark Qantas-Emirates alliance, the Red Roo says it’s not giving up on Singapore.
In fact, the airline says that business travellers will be better served by Singapore being treated as a destination in its own right rather than a transit stop on the Kangaroo Route.
Read: What the Qantas-Emirates alliance means for London and UK travel
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce is quick to pledge that Qantas “will increase dedicated capacity to Singapore and re-time flights to Singapore and Hong Kong to enable many more ‘same day’ connections across Asia.”
This process will begin with flight schedules between Australia and Singapore being adjusted to run at times better suited to travellers, rather than needing to line up to Singapore-London services which leave at midnight.
That said, the revised timetables will also seek to tie into Jetstar Asia services based at Singapore’s Changi Airport.
In addition to keeping current Australian flights to Singapore, codeshare Emirates flights will boost the total number of seats available on a Qantas ticket.
“(Emirates) flies from Singapore to Brisbane and to Melbourne” Joyce told The Australian newspaper last week.
“So we finally have our two flights on Singapore-Melbourne, we’ll have two flights on Singapore-Brisbane which we’ve never had before, and then we're going to re-time our Sydney flights, which go at the same time.”
At last week’s press conference Joyce assured Australian Business Traveller that planned upgrades to the airline’s Singapore and Hong Kong lounges, both of which are slated to be complete by year’s end, would go ahead.
Qantas is also tipped to introduce fully lie-flat Skybed II business class seats on its Airbus A330 flights to Singapore.
Keep up to date with the latest news for business travellers and frequent flyers: follow @AusBT on Twitter.
About David Flynn
David Flynn is the editor of Australian Business Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.











1 on 13/9/12 by undertheradar