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Emirates faces frequent flyer fall
Program could become a 'casualty' of Qantas alliance, concedes airline's chief.
By Matt O'Sullivan
Emirates president Tim Clark concedes that his airline's frequent-flyer scheme in Australia could become a "casualty" of its extensive alliance with Qantas.
The prospect of Emirates' Skywards members switching to Qantas will be a further boost to the size of the latter's frequent-flyer scheme, which stands at about 9 million members.
Describing Qantas as a "neat fit", Mr Clark also made clear that Emirates is unlikely to replicate its alliance with another airline elsewhere in the world.
The airline veteran said the overarching benefits from the Qantas alliance had removed to the margins any concerns he may have had about the impact on its Skywards loyalty scheme in Australia.
"The only casualty in all of this may be ... our frequent-flyer, Skywards, because you can travel on us as if you are a Qantas passenger. If you are in Australia you might as well as be in the Qantas scheme," he said.
"If there is a shift away from us, as long as it is to Qantas, we do not have a problem with that. [The switch] is not a big deal for us."
Despite the loss of Skywards members in Australia, Mr Clark said the tie-up with Qantas had strengthened the Emirates brand.
"Our link with Qantas lit up our brand in Australia because [previously] a lot of loyalists to Qantas would not cross over to Emirates," he said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association's annual meeting in Cape Town on Tuesday.
It had also helped change the negative perception among people in places such as Europe towards Middle Eastern airlines such as Emirates, he said.
Mr Clark emphasised that the alliance would increase the number of corporate and other well-heeled travellers on its planes, rather than the overall number of passengers.
"Already the Emirates operation into Australia was a pretty saturated one," he said.
Emirates has been increasing its capacity on routes to Australia, which has included adding an extra A380 superjumbo service each day between Sydney and Dubai.
While Emirates has shown interest in flying A380s to Perth, Mr Clark indicated these plans had been put on the backburner after Asian airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Qatar Airways increased services to the city.