Qantas is changing one of its most popular routes and upgrading the aircraft on another key service as part of a five-year extended partnership with Emirates.
The airline will re-route its daily Sydney to London services via Singapore rather than Dubai and says it will upgrade its existing daily flight from Melbourne to Singapore from an A330 to an A380 airbus, from March.
Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the changes will help the carrier keep up with customer demands and new aircraft technologies.
"Our partnership has evolved to a point where Qantas no longer needs to fly its own aircraft through Dubai, and that means we can redirect some of our A380s flying into Singapore and meet the strong demand we're seeing in Asia," Mr Joyce said in a statement on Thursday.
He said the changes will generate an increased revenue pool for the partnership to share and cost savings around crew, scheduling and fuel.
Qantas estimated the move will bring in more than $80 million in annualised cost savings from the 2019 financial year onwards.
It will also free up an A330 Airbus to be used elsewhere in the network.
"That is a significant benefit," Mr Joyce said.
"What we have been looking at for some time is how do we continue to grow the Asian market without buying additional capital and the fastest and best way we can do it is better utilisation of assets."
The airline said demand for flights between Australia and Dubai will still be well served by the 77 weekly services that Emirates operates from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.
Mr Joyce said improvements in aircraft technology meant the airline would eventually offer a handful of direct routes between Australia and Europe.
"But this will never overtake the sheer number of destinations served by Emirates and that's why Dubai will remain an important hub for our customers," he said.
The two airlines will seek re-authorisation from regulators, including the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, to co-ordinate price, schedules, sales and tourism marketing.
Qantas shares were trading four cents, or 0.71 per cent, higher at $5.70 at 1131 AEST
