Jetstar Middle East - Maybe one day?

[The Rok]

Virgin Australia to benefit from Abu Dhabi airport expansion | Plane Talking

Prediction: Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai will be served by Australian flag carriers by 2017, and one them could be Jetstar.

Now thats a scary thought. I would of assumed QF would be the likely carrier for Middle Eastern ops.

 

[samh004]

What are the ownership rules for the UAE? I’d be thinking if Jetstar started middle-east operations based in Ab Dhabi it’d really upset Emirates, and maybe even Eithad. While the market there is heavily premium traffic, a little competition at the discount end could shake things up!

Don’t agree about the direct SYD-LHR flights, that’ll never be profitable, at least not at todays prices. May as well just work on teleportation.

 

[MrHyde]

There already are some LCC's in the region. I've travelled on both Bahrain Air (based in Bahrain) as well as Air Arabia (based in Sharjah) and both fly to a number of destinations around the world. Air Arabia already flies to 65 cities, so I don't think Etihad or Emirates are immune from LCC's working on their turf.

 

[browski]

There will be no JetStar base in the UAE.
JetStar Asia might attempt a SIN-DXB or KUL-DXB route sometime in the future.
There is no way Qantas will be flying that route - Qantas only cuts routes.

Of course Qantas' new premium Asian airline "Red Herring" may start flying that route from 2019.

 

[elbarto]

There already are some LCC's in the region. I've travelled on both Bahrain Air (based in Bahrain) as well as Air Arabia (based in Sharjah) and both fly to a number of destinations around the world. Air Arabia already flies to 65 cities, so I don't think Etihad or Emirates are immune from LCC's working on their turf.

I believe that EK or Dubai govt has their finger in the Air Arabia pie. Also the UAE has fairly liberal aviation rules, such as open skies, to encourage other airlines. A quick look on google would suggest that foreign ownership is limited to 49%, as can be found in this document.

http://www.iata.org/SiteCollectionDocuments/Documents/UAEReport.pdf

After the Vietnam experience, you can expect that QF/JQ could be wary of setting up operations in the UAE where things could change in a heart beat should the governments there feel their state-owned and controlled entities are significantly threatened.