I know of many many people who have stayed in Dubai hotel as a couple and have not had any problems!

Qantas's two flights a day will be a minor increase in capacity to the UAE from Australia. There are already a dozen or so Emirates flights a day plus Ethiad and Virgin Australia flights too. So 2 extra out of say 16 or so a day.

With those 16 flights a day already, do you hear of people being locked up on a daily basis? The answer of course is no.

Hey guys,

Which aircraft operated the flyover and which QF aircraft is operating the inaugural flight?

Cheers

M

Mark, it was VH-OQJ and A6-EDY in the flyover. Believe OQJ will perform QF1 to DXB and LHR.

Dan

Thanks mate.

I've just spent 5 days in Dubai, as well as 5 days in Qatar. All this scaremongering by the media is utter rubbish. The UAE people are quite friendly, and in the Dubai Emirate at least, are tolerable to some Western things. That said, it's common courtesy to respect their own beliefs and culture, just like you would any other country. It's plain common sense and the travellers responsibility to research the countries they are visiting. If you don't like it, travel elsewhere.

Mick

Yeah Dubai is a lovely country but sometimes the local always keep asking for extra money for more services and help and so on.

However, the problem is that...how to cross the road if there are no traffic lights. Do you feel safe if you want to try to cross the road if the traffic is busy?

I didn't come across anywhere that didn't have crossings in at least the tourist areas Lawrie.

Mick

Mick - good point re local customs. Just because QF starts flying there suddenly the mainstream media is beating up what may or may not happen if you wear a tank top or dare to hold hands with your partner. It's as if Dubai has suddenly been opened up to the western world for the first time!

It always amazes me how narrow minded and blighted with tunnel vision some people are . I with my wife have travelled to the UAE and Bahrain many times , have never ever felt unwelcomed , or had any patronizing or unwanted attention .. I've consumed alcohol in the public areas of hotels with no objections , indeed , there is an Irish themed pub at Dubai Airport , that would be a public area would it not ? ..People need to take off their Rose tinted glasses and throw away their blinkers and see the " real World " ..

Dave C

The Qantas PR department will counter this report & tour groups will handle any issues .

I was on the inaugural QF1 and have to say its a fantastic destination, just got back on Nancy Bird and we broke her, needed to be towed on landing.

Have to agree wholeheartedly with everything Mick and Dave said.

Spot on guys,nothing more to be said.

Cheers
Jim

Further to MarkR's posting yesterday re VH-OQA
 

QF confirms it was an hydraulics issue - Sky News reprt here:

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopS...re_860500.html

Hi All,

With the EK/QF Alliance now done, what does this mean for Jetstar expansion plans into Europe?
Was Jetstar serious about ops into places like Rome, EX SIN? It's well with range of A332 A/C at 10057kms ex SIN.

Or has this idea gone cold now?
Where would JQ look to ops the B787 Dreamliner?

Stuart

Did Jetstar ever say that was their plan, or was it media commentators wishful thinking?

As for the 787 where are they going to operate them? Easy to places where they currently operate the A330's with a couple for minor route expansion.

Qantas, Emirates partnership gets the nod (NZ Herald)
 

Source - Qantas, Emirates partnership gets the nod

Will be interesting to see whether the AKL-ADL/PER ever become a reality, and for PER what equipment would be used (one would imagine B767 but how will that compete with NZ and its B777).

I would have thought if anyone Emirates would operate PER-AKL rather than Qantas. It's not like Qantas has the equipment lying around to add a flight like that.

HI All,

With Qantas now shredding jobs faster than anything to get their costs down, I was wondering what sort of impact has this joint Partnership has had on QF.

Qantas has dropped many routes since they joined with EK, and I believe this has hurt QF big time.

I still don't understand why QF had to drop old Kangaroo Route through Singapore to London.

Why couldn't EK drop EK404/405 DXB to MEL via SIN?

Qantas should have forced EK to Drop that route all together and allowed it to operate on QF Metal either a A333 or B747, or even a A380 to DXB via SIN. Also they could have then also continued their feeder services from Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane.

QF 1/2 then could have also continued to ops via SIN to LHR, and also QF9/10 via SIN to LHR

This way QF could have picked up an extra route with Feeder services retained.

I say this QF and EK chase each other tails landing within 1 hour on each other into Mel on the DXB-MEL Legs and properly the same in Sydney.

And it would still be one stop into Europe, but on each countries airline.

It makes no sense to me.

Stuart

The jobs haven't affected anything as of yet, as far as I am aware as I am aware the areas in which the cuts will be are yet to be announced!

So what are these MANY routes they have dropped?

What comes to mind to me is SIN-LHR, PER-HGK (which had nothing to do with the EK arrangement) and ADL-SIN.

As to why QF dropped the old Kangaroo route, very simple. Not everyone going to Europe is flying to London. Fly to London people then need to fly all the way to London to change to another carrier to get to their destination. Even for say Amsterdam this would add 4 hours to your journey time.

However fly through Dubai, people can change there and in most cases get to where they want to go one stop. An added bonus for those up front is not having to fly and then change to BA Club Europe.

Add SIN-FRA to that list also. Things aren't looking good for QF's South African service either. It seems to me that it's only Emirates and not Qantas that is benefiting from the QF-EK deal. In fact, things at Qantas only seem to have gone from bad to worse. Time for Joyce & Co to fall on their swords.

it was always a desperate move from Qantas to join Emirates and in doing so sacrifice its own routes , Qantas should have kept the Syd - Singapore - London route with a 777 and add Paris or Franfurt like the old days , again using a 777 instead of the A380 which can be hard to fill on competitive routes
giving better optiosn for people travelling to Europe from Australia who don't need to go to LHR , Emirates don't give a damn whether Qantas survive or not , they are simply going to swallow them whole ! If Qantas do give up the Syd - Joberg route then it is simply another nail in the Qantas coffin !:(

Ash you forget that BNE,PER,ADL had the luxury of changing planes in SIN to fly to LHR which is no longer the case.I don't fly QF anymore but lot's of people still do, and this has not been good for them if they don't live in SYD or MEL.All these cities have to backtrack to SYD or MEL to fly Qantas.

cHEERS.

I was responding to the claim they have dropped heaps of routes, but yes forgot SIN-FRA. Lack of connections is another issue altogether, that is for sure. But at the end of the day Qantas cannot be everything to everybody. We simply do not have the population and traffic to justify it. I mean to say even in the US with over 12 times the population of Australia it is quite common for passengers from cities the size of Adelaide and Perth to have to fly through a hub port to get to places in Europe, Asia the Pacific and even closer destinations like Central and South America.

If we don't have the population, why do QF have behemoth 380s doing hub to hub instead of flying smaller planes point to point to more destinations?

I curse the A380.

An ugly aeroplane that has help contribute to QF's problems.

I agree. QF have old A330's flying around Asia and A380's flying half empty to London at various times of the year. Imagine if they had a fleet of Boeing 787's and Boeing 777's flying trans-Pacific routes, point to point Asian routes and services through to Europe and London? Oh, if only........

By smaller how small do you meant? A320/737 size or bigger? Because population wise A320 size is about what is needed for say a daily Perth/Adealide/Brisbane to London service, but clearly it cannot make it unless you want a couple of extra stops.

So the smallest that can make it 1 stop would be a 777-200 or maybe an A330, both of which would be too big for daily.

Also do not forget also that slots at Heathrow don't grow on trees either, though yes Qantas do have two pairs that they own but are currently leased out.

[QUOTE=Ryan K;87614]QF have old A330's flying around AsiaQUOTE]

10 years is hardly old. If you had of said an old product then yes 10 is at the maximum of sensible, though Qantas is doing something about that this year, at about the right time.

Steve S , don't blame the A380 , Blame Qantas management for choosing it !! The A380 is designed for airlines such as Singapore and Emirates etc which have high volumes of flow through pax numbers ( HUB airports) , Australia is an end destination and Qantas management should have used its brains and gone for the 777 300 for Sydney - London , and maybe use the 777 or 787 later on US flights , keeping the 747 400ER as long as poss. the A380 is a great aircraft but in my view not suited to Qantas ,

Guys,

QF has evaluated the B777 numerous times and have rejected it for a variety of reasons.

They are the technical experts, not anyone on this or other message boards

Give us all a break and stop saying QF should have B777's

They don't, so get over it !

It is such a boring discussion point for too many years

Or maybe not......

http://www.ausbt.com.au/qantas-mulls...ce-boeing-747s

[QUOTE=Ash W;87617]Sorry, I should have perhaps been more clear. I was referring to the A330 in-flight product. Old, small screens and seat covers that haven't been replaced since who knows how long.

Qantas, as all airlines do, has evaluated many types (if not all major ones ) of aircraft over all the years.

The current range of B777's were extensively evaluated and rejected and the new B777X has only recently been launched and no doubt QF will look at that as well as the A350.

I refer to the older models of B777's that so many armchair experts think they know better that the QF technical and management people.

My original comments remain

Bit of a sore point Neil?

The fact of the matter is that QF HAVE made a mistake, the incumbent board and leaders of the company are choosing to make that point stick. Whether you like to discuss it or not people are entitled to and can make judgements as they please whether informed or not.

The facts are well known that VAI is making profit with 5(!) B77Ws on key trunk routes as they have accepted they are a point to point airline much like ANZ. The B788 is a good choice for QFi not JQi which has had to alter their plans for services out of OOL due to not having the performance they thought it would with the pax numbers in current config.

Disclaimer: I work in the industry.

Further, look at ANZ, they attained brand new B77W slots in a matter of months, I'm sure this is quite achievable with QFi, mind you QF has lost a lot of friends recently so that could be easier said then done, on the other hand their BFF has some decent slots...

Not a sore point James.

Just as I express an opinion then so can you and others.

Just sick and tired of the anti QF attitudes and that they should have brought B777's that keep cropping up. To be honest just gets tedious as the subject is flogged to death over the years on this and other boards.

I worked in the industry for a long time and still have many reliable contacts including knowing some of those who were involved in those decisions.

Remember the A380 & B787-8/9 should have been delivered years earlier than has happened. They were ordered as the most suitable aircraft at that time. The B777's at that time were considered unsuitable.

Remember that VA also cancelled their 6th B777

As you know, things change rapidly in this business, that is why it is exciting.