QF1 at Dubai International
It’s customary, when an inaugural flight touches down at its destination, to hose the plane down with giant water cannons. A little like breaking a magnum onto a ship’s hull, if you will. Given the fanfare surrounding the arrival of flights QF1 and QF2 into Dubai for the first time, on the same day, it wouldn’t have been beyond the realms of possibility that it was champagne rather than desalinated desert water that I saw cascading across the windows beside me.
While Virgin Atlantic’s new deal with Delta is seen as the aviation equivalent of being picked last for the football team (thanks to Singapore Airlines offloading its 49% stake in the former) the new Qantas/Emirates partnership has been unveiled with giddy, blow-the-budget, Busby Berkeley razzle-dazzle.
To mark the launch of the alliance, Qantas and Emirates flew an A380 each – side by side – over Sydney Harbour Bridge for a photo-call, and then held a massive champagne-fuelled banquet in Dubai, complete with Neil Perry fairy floss desserts and a PA by Gloria Gaynor. As oil prices continue to hover not far off the CEO-eyewatering $100 a barrel mark, and buzzards circle many a carrier, one wonders if the choice of Gaynor, complete with inevitable “I Will Survive” curtain call, was as much a statement of intent as a crowd pleaser.
Certainly Emirates is an airline with deep pockets, and its hub is state of the art. Qantas planes from the UK and Australia will now be using the brand new $3bn purpose-built A380 terminal in Dubai, rather than stopping off in Singapore. Business and First class passengers stroll directly from lounge to boarding bridge after final call – it’s a seamless service. There are other significant benefits too: overall journey times are shorter and offer better sleep patterns, and Qantas passengers can get to 32 destinations in Europe from the new hub. (These include regional UK airports, which cut out the ordeal of the soul-destroying London connection after an epic full-day journey). Qantas is now also offering the same chauffeur service to and from airports for Business class passengers as Emirates does.
Qantas x Emirates A380 formation flyover, Sydney, 31st March 2013
So, what else does the alliance mean for the product? Well, so far, nothing significant apart from the aforementioned logistical changes: it’s business as usual and there’s little reason to think – despite a myriad competitors – Qantas passengers will defect to other carriers. Dubai may not be the most appealing destination in its own right to many regular Qantas passengers yet, but for those travellers – like me – who like to break up the Europe to Australia long haul with a couple of nights layover, there’s a lot to like: what Dubai lacks in cultural must-sees, it makes up for in insanely plush five star hotels, excellent service and solid fine dining. Yes, it’s all an architectural dog’s dinner, but where better to decompress than poolside at the Armani with just a couple of spa appointments and dinner at Zuma in the diary?
Qantas remains one of my top five airlines worldwide. I first fell in love with it when, travelling around Australia the first time, I keyed my booking reference into an auto check-in machine and was asked whether I’d like to hop on the flight leaving in half an hour, rather than the later one I’d been booked on. The change was gratis. Consider, compare and contrast with Ry*n*ir, ladies and gentleman. Actually, let’s not lower the tone…
The main reason I love Qantas is their alignment with Marc Newson, who has given all of their cabins and lounges such a distinctive, appealing and contemporary look. I’m a huge fan of Virgin Atlantic, but Qantas offers a less overwhelming, more sophisticated design experience. The First class lounge in Sydney is a thing of retro futurist beauty and Newson’s Noritake coffee cups and saucers, in fine bone china, are straight out of Space: 1999.
I have a particular fondness for the cool silver sheen of the Skybed seats in Qantas Business class. Buckling up aboard QF2, Qantas’s first London to Dubai flight, I stared at the pod-like seatback in front of me and noted once again how robot-like it was. There’s a touch of Darth Vader’s meditation chamber about the design. It’s not to all tastes, but I find it really quite beautiful. And the new generation of Skybed is fully flat rather than angled.
Qantas A380 Skybed, designed by Marc Newson
Qantas’s One World status means passengers can still use the British Airways lounge in Heathrow, but the catering is more extensive (including a constant supply of Veuve Clicquot) at the Emirates space in Terminal Three. As my flight was leaving at 9.30pm, I had dinner here before take-off, intending to skip the inflight catering and maximise sleep. Qantas clearly anticipate most passengers on this leg of the journey doing the same: a list of possible main meals and light snacks was outlined to each passenger verbally, one-on-one, in lieu of an actual menu. While my neighbour had a speedily served small bowl of noodles on board, I had a glass of Billecart-Salmon and got ready to don my eye mask. I slept solidly for close to five hours and woke up in Dubai feeling refreshed.
The Business product on Qantas uses a 2-2-2 formation, which I prefer if I’m travelling with a companion but am less keen on if I’m solo and sitting next to a stranger. A sliding metal partition offers privacy when the seats are in flatbed position, while the touch-screen TV screens are embedded in the armrest rather than in the seat in front. It’s a very different product to the Emirates A380 Business seat. There’s a little less privacy, but at the same time the cabin feels far less claustrophobic. And when the Skybed has been fully converted, you feel cocooned in the hood-like shell of the back of the seat. Unlike on Emirates, there’s no bar – the upstairs “lounge” is just a rather odd, narrow space with a banquette in front of a TV. It’s swings and roundabouts, but I prefer the Qantas A380 Business cabin.
Business passengers are all given good quality grey Peter Morrissey pyjamas, and Jack Spade or Kate Spade designed amenity kits with Malin+Goetz skincare products inside. Qantas’ choice of brands is telling – like Marc Newson’s designs, they are distinctly modern in presentation. And it’s here that the Qantas and Emirates alliance starts to feel slightly odd – Emirates is luxurious, but big on gold, flash and Bulgari. Qantas is pared down and cooler. One wonders how the partnership will develop. What will both airlines look like in five years time? Will compromises be made? This is, after all, being presented as so much more than a codesharing arrangement, and might well become a template for the survival of airlines in the future. Qantas has already – somewhat controversially – taken pork off the menu for flights travelling through Dubai. But, that’ll hardly be a deal breaker for most frequent flyers. There’ll still be plenty of champagne on board. C