Qantas has sought regulatory approval for Cathay Pacific to codeshare on its flights between Australia and Hong Kong.
The apparent expansion of the airlines’ recently-announced codesharing arrangement is revealed in a Qantas application to the International Air Services Commission (IASC), the Australian government body which allocates international airline capacity.
“The International Air Services Commission (the Commission) has received an application from Qantas seeking to vary Determination [2015] IASC 115 (as varied) to permit the use of the capacity for the provision of codeshare services with Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (Cathay Pacific) on the Hong Kong route,” the IASC said on its website on Tuesday.
In a letter to the IASC, Megan Morris, Qantas’s acting head of international affairs wrote that: “it is proposed that Cathay Pacific will offer codeshare services on flights operated by Qantas on the Hong Kong route from 31 March 2019.”
For now Qantas is keeping details of the proposed codeshare expansion under wraps.
“We are looking at expanding our codeshare arrangement with Cathay Pacific to provide more options for our customers,” a Qantas spokesperson told Australian Aviation via email.
“We will provide further details following the IASC process.”
Qantas operates nonstop flights from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney to Hong Kong with a mix of Airbus A330s, A380s and Boeing 747s and 787s.
Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific uses all available capacity for Hong Kong flag carriers to Australia’s four major gateways of Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney under the current bilateral air services agreement between the two countries.
