With further details, Emirates-Qantas partnership will have global reach; Qantas adjusts partners

While the seismic Emirates-Qantas partnership was announced as covering northern Africa, Europe, the Middle East, New Zealand and Southeast Asia - by all means a large portion of the world - Emirates and Qantas are laying the seeds for the partnership to possibly cover the entire world. In the short term, Emirates could finally tap into leisure demand from the Pacific Islands, largely out of reach from Dubai, via Jetstar and Qantas services. In the medium term, Qantas could partner on Emirates' services to South Africa if Australian regulators prohibit Qantas and South African Airways from working together.

Back in the short term, Qantas has further detailed the alliance's impact on its current grouping of partners. Emirates and Qantas, as Air New Zealand and Virgin Australia did in their alliance, have pledged to maintain current trans-Tasman capacity levels and say they are considering launching new routes to Auckland from Adelaide and Perth. Further network changes could be in the pipeline for the carriers as they seek interim authorisation of their partnership in order to effectively participate at the upcoming IATA slots conference.