MAS, Qantas mulling JV

[anchew]

MAS, Qantas mulling JV

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and Australian carrier Qantas are mulling over a joint venture to set up a premium airline based in Kuala Lumpur, a move that could give a competitive boost to both airlines, industry sources said.

The sources said that both parties had been working towards signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday, but the date had been pushed back indefinitely.

 

[samh004]

I thought the premium airline had been shelved/was just a rouse to force the negotiating hands.

 

[Deleted member]

I never believed that! ( it was a ruse that is) my question is that while this (JV) will be an attempt to make qantas an internationally competitive airline , will we Aussies ( and kiwis that snuck in before the rules changed) be able to book the reduced cost flights via the KL site?
This is and always was about pricing ( and a bit of union busting along the way) so if AJ and the board of QF get their way , where will it leave the punters? Because the pilots are not going to want to drop their very nice pay and conditions in a big hurry. Will we now have a very able and attentive cabin crew of Malaysian , Chinese, etc instead of the ubiquitous Aussie boys and Girls, It is only slightly less disconcerting to have kiwi accents on Bne-Akl QF .
But then a JV is just a nice way of softening us up for the eventual full (QF) ownership.


If it doesn't matter if you win or lose.......How come they keep score?

 

[elbarto]

But then a JV is just a nice way of softening us up for the eventual full (QF) ownership.

Full ownership of QF or by QF? Either is unlikely to happen due to ownership laws.

 

[Standby]

Not unexpected. SIN would be difficult after the VA/SQ tie up for all sorts of reasons.HKG is CX's backyard .MH have or are hiving off lots of full service routes to Air Asia. This helps them develop low cost premium so they still get feed to their longhaul and will make it easier for QF to get an AOC.
The downside is KLs geographic position to the market QF aspired to in the launch of this new carrier.Sounds like a long way to go

 

[IGetAround]

From a network planning perspective, a close tie-up with MAS would involve splitting the Asian hubbing between SIN and KUL. QF currently lacks the critical mass at SIN to justify destinations other than LHR/FRA, yet lacks the destinations to step up major cities like MEL and BNE to multiple daily frequencies; setting up a secondary hub at SIN does not resolve this catch-22.

I have compiled a summary about what we know of QF's Asia plans so far:

davidkeating.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/what-we-know-about-redq

Not unexpected. SIN would be difficult after the VA/SQ tie up for all sorts of reasons.HKG is CX's backyard .MH have or are hiving off lots of full service routes to Air Asia. This helps them develop low cost premium so they still get feed to their longhaul and will make it easier for QF to get an AOC.

SIN seems like the lesser of all evils IMHO. Their "scissor hub" for AU-UK/Europe traffic seems to work well (for the limited destinations it serves); adding the Asia transfer traffic to AU and UK/Europe may provide the critical mass necessary to cause QF to re-open some Europe stations once the 787s arrive and provide some additional frequencies.

If you read between the lines in the QF shareholder releases, it becomes fairly obvious that whichever form the Asian venture takes, it will involve non-QF metal flying down to Australia.

 

[samh004]

Will we now have a very able and attentive cabin crew of Malaysian , Chinese, etc instead of the ubiquitous Aussie boys and Girls, It is only slightly less disconcerting to have kiwi accents on Bne-Akl QF .

While you could have foreign crews flying in/out of Australia on the international sectors, I doubt domestic would change, as the crews would have to live here, or at least be put up after their day of flights, which would surely be a huge money pit. So as far as domestic goes, I see no issues there.

As for JetConnect to NZ, I generally find them nicer than the international Aussie staff I’ve flown with to SIN. The British crews between SIN and LHR are good too.

I’m not sure what all the fuss is about with Australian crews…