Alliances need to evolve, says Emirates boss

The Qantas partnership was "dead easy" for Emirates, and includes access to the airline's frequent flyers, domestic network and corporate market. Photo / Paul Escourt

Emirates president Tim Clark says airline alliances have to change or die.

"The fact of the matter is that if we've done anything as Gulf carriers - we've caused them to rethink whether the alliance business model is aligned and attuned to the way 21st century planet earth and its air travel demands are organised," Clark said.

Alliances' strength lies in times of recession when they "glued themselves together to protect against global pressures but it causes a thinking among the players to become protectionist and inward-looking. Survival becomes a mantra in what they do."

Emirates has eschewed alliances but there were signs they were evolving. The partnership with Qantas, a OneWorld member, was an example.

Star Alliance member Air New Zealand's arrangement with OneWorld's Cathay Pacific was another example of cross alliance co-operation.

Clark said airlines had a choice when they saw airlines outside their grouping running routes profitably - try and take them down or figure out how they're doing it.

The Qantas partnership had not been a difficult one for Emirates, he said at the International Air Transport Association meeting in Cape Town.

The Australian airline had a "huge" home presence but a smaller footprint to the west of Australia and up to Europe.

Emirates got access to Qantas frequent flyers, its domestic network and corporate market. "It was just perfect - slam dunk, dead easy. Others, more difficult."

He said no more partnerships were planned at the moment but wouldn't rule them out.

"There could be that someone knocks on the door. We would never say never [but] I am very focused on doing what we are doing so well which is generally on our own and third parties slow you down."

For airlines, global alliances are marketing tools offering wider access to premium lounges, the right to "earn and burn" air miles on a variety of operators and a more seamless travel experience built around code-share deals which allow carriers to book people on to each other's flights as if they were their own.