Australian national carrier Qantas Airways on Thursday said it will fly from Sydney to London via Singapore instead of Dubai as the airline extends its partnership with Gulf carrier Emirates.
The carrier announced that from March 25, the daily QF1 service from Sydney to London will go via Singapore's Changi Airport rather than via the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai.
At the same time, Qantas' current Melbourne-Dubai-London service will go through Perth when Qantas starts the world's first direct flights from Australia to London next year.
"Our 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," Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement.
Including flights from Brisbane and Perth that fly to Singapore, Qantas will operate 49 weekly services in total from Singapore to Australia and London, with a total of over 17,600 one-way seats each week.
These changes are part of its plans to cater to growing demand in Asia, the Australian carrier said.
The adjustments will also deliver financial upside to both airlines, with Qantas annualised net benefit estimated at more than A$80 million from fiscal 2019 onwards, the airline said.
