Malaysia Airlines and Qantas Joint Venture Not Happening

8th Dec 2015

When Malaysia Airlines Berhad penned a deal with Emirates, many assumed that this would open the doors for a new partnership with Qantas Airways. However, that will not happen, despite the positive report from CAPA (Centre for Aviation) regarding the collaboration between the two Oneworld members.

Initially, the two carriers (Qantas and Malaysia Airlines) planned to start a joint venture, full service partnership in Asia. Unfortunately, this idea never came to fruition because the companies could not agree on certain commercial terms and the idea was dropped in 2012.

CAPA’s reasoning was that MAB should take another look at its deal with the Australian airline if they want to operate the routes to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and other Australian cities.

Today, however, Qantas confirmed it is not planning to revisit its earlier partnership with the Malaysian operator.

A spokesman for Qantas said:

We are always looking at opportunities with our code-share partners, but there are no immediate plans to change our current relationship with Malaysia Airlines or fly into Kuala Lumpur at this stage.

Right now, it would appear that Qantas is focused more on other Asian cities, particularly Hong Kong and Singapore, and is using its subsidiary Jetstar Asia for that market.

According to CAPA, ideally, the MAB-Emirates codeshare partnership would offer mutual revenue sharing between the two airlines and create a joint venture.

The report said:

JVs are not an area MAB has begun to pursue, initially focusing on the restructure of its network and reworking its schedule for better support of regional connections. Nevertheless, the MAB management team plans eventually to look at potential JVs and Emirates would be a logical suitor – particularly if the new codeshare partnership proves to be successful.

Malaysia Airlines Berhad and Emirates announced their partnership on 2^nd December, 2015. This allows passengers from Malaysia to travel to Europe, while it connects Emirates passengers to routes in Asia Pacific that MAB flies.