Qantas woes haven’t helped Emirates alliance, says Clark

Clark told London newspaper The Telegraph Qantas boss Alan Joyce had been forced to focus on his airline’s dire financial situation in the past year to the detriment of the Emirates partnership, which had been a lower priority.

“It hasn’t helped that they [Qantas] have had problems. When that happens to a relatively small group, there are other things that fall slightly by the wayside,” Clark was quoted as saying.

“I’m not saying for a moment that Alan has let our relationship between the two companies and the endgame … slip, it’s just that he has got quite a tough situation on his hands.”

A few months after the Dubai- and Australian-based airlines tied up on March 31, last year, Qantas revealed its poor finances were weakening to the point that he called on the Australian government to relax foreign ownership rules to allow it to be better compete, particularly against domestic rival Virgin Australia, which is more than 70 percent foreign owned, including by Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways.

Earlier this year, Qantas revealed a A$252m ($229m) half-year loss and said it would retrench about 15 percent of its 30,000-strong workforce.

The announcement has been a firebomb for the national flag carrier.

Clark said in December the alliance would not be deepened by Emirates bailing out Qantas.

He was in Sydney earlier this month for what he described as “our first get-together of any real flesh” since the partnership was launched, The Telegraph said.

Emirates has traditionally avoided alliances but Clark denied the Qantas partnership had been a negative change strategy.

“The partnership is doing what we thought it would do,” Clark said.

“Dubai has been a beneficiary. We’ve had many Australian tourists – 260,000 in the last 10 or 11 months have stopped over in Dubai.”

The airlines announced last year that international passenger traffic between Dubai and Australia rose 40 percent in the first six months of the partnership.