Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker confirmed in Perth today that the Doha-based airline will talk with Qantas senior executives next week on plans between the two airlines to form a strategic alliance. The code sharing arrangement would mean the QF Qantas flight code being carried by Qatar services with seamless transfers to Australian domestic services. Indeed, Qantas has been speaking with Qatar on the issue for some time (as reported here in March) and the alliance would include Qatar's existing daily service into Melbourne and its new service to Perth, which was launched yesterday.
As Airline Economics stated in its investing in airlines feature, the future for the mainline carriers is through code share/joint venture with JAL being the best template in the market today of how quickly an airline can turnaround using such measures. SIA will have to watch out….But of course all of this code sharing and alliance expansion will most likely yet lead to a regulatory backlash in the near future with accusations of price fixing and/or uncompetitive behaviour being likely.