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Emirates president and CEO Tim Clark has described the process of executing his airline’s new alliance with Qantas, which comes into place on March 31, as a “Herculean task”.
Speaking in Sydney on Sunday before the departure of the inaugural Qantas QF1 service to London to operate via Dubai, Clark explained there were ” literally hundreds and hundreds of issues that had to be addressed” in preparing for the alliance.
“The alignment of processes, the alignment of the practices that have got to be aligned to make that work, whether that be the customer fronting issues, inflight services, ground services, the information technology systems that go behind to drive our reservation systems, our departure control systems, our revenue accounting systems, one can go on,” Clark said.
“As we moved towards this day and the approval particularly from the Australian authorities, came together, so the intensity of the work increased, to make sure we had price alignment, product alignment, communication alignment… I could list literally hundreds and hundreds of issues that had to be addressed.”
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said the Emirates alliance was the biggest commercial agreement Qantas had participated in. “There were 22 IT projects in Qantas alone aligning systems.”
Joyce said executing the alliance was a “massive” process. In addition to the commercial and regulatory approval aspects, Joyce noted Qantas is “changing hubs, we are moving from Singapore to Dubai, which is a huge operational issue.” He said Sunday’s formation flight of a Qantas and Emirates A380 over Sydney Harbour, “which looked so easy”, was a microcosm of the cooperation required to execute the alliance.
dave brown
says:hi what a magnificent sight !!! i was fishing on sunday approx.5 k’s off mona vale when i witnessed the best fly by one could ever imagine. there before my very eyes were the 2 massive jets flying in unison and circling several times over our beautiful coastline.congratulations qantas & emirates WELL DONE !!! regards.
Sam
says:I was on the first QF9 which was the first flight to arrive in Dubai as well. The crew were especially welcoming. Good stuff Qantas.
NRA
says:Was an awesome sight
Sam being on QF 9 what was the experience in Dubai?
Sam
says:After you get off you have to go through security again at the start (Rather than just before you get on again in Singapore). But other than that its pretty similar to any other large non US airport terminal I’ve been to.
Patrick Kilby
says:Both Sydney and Hong Kong require security on arrival if transiting, as well as US ports. Sing may be te exception.
Gerald Walter
says:I had so much fun traveling with Emirates. Love the multi national flight attendant spirit and warmth. Next week will b my 8th flight with them and I can’t wait. 1 of the best!