Qantas axes Frankfurt flights

Qantas will axe its daily flights to Frankfurt from October next year, leaving London as the airline's sole European destination.

The cancellation of the Sydney-Frankfurt and Melbourne-Frankfurt flights, which are generally held to be running at a sizeable loss, comes as the Red Roo tightens its international belt to rein in last year's $450 million loss.

Qantas travellers looking to reach Frankfurt or indeed any other city in mainland Europe from October will either need to fly back from London or, much more likely, take advantage of Qantas' new codeshare partnership with Emirates, which will involve flying with Qantas or Emirates to Dubai and then transferring to one of Emirates' twice-daily services to Frankfurt.

(Emirates also flies direct to Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Munich, in case Frankfurt was simply your nearest jumping-off point when it came to travelling with Qantas.)

"While this service has been underperforming for some time, and withdrawal was inevitable, the partnership with Emirates will enable it to take place with minimal impact on Qantas customers" said Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.

Joyce did not reveal if Qantas plans to retire the Boeing 747s which currently fly to Frankfurt or reassign them to another route.

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David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.