AUSTRALIA. Air services group dnata, part of Emirates Group, will acquire the catering businesses of Australian airline, Qantas, subject to approval from the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission.
The Dubai-based provider of flight catering and inflight retail services to over 190 airlines, signed an agreement last week for the Qantas businesses which also includes wholly-owned subsidiaries Q Catering and Snap Fresh.
Q Catering has centres in four Australian airports – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – with its largest airline customer being Qantas. Snap Fresh operates a state-of-the-art meal production plant in Queensland, specialising in frozen meals for airlines, healthcare and food retail industries.
“This agreement reflects our confidence in Australia as a market. By combining dnata’s network strength and international talent with Qantas’s domestic catering expertise, this will allow us to grow our presence and reach more customers across Australia than ever,” dnata Divisional Senior Vice President of Catering Robin Padgett.
Under the deal, dnata will supply catering for Qantas flights for an initial 10 years, while the airline will continue to work with key suppliers in menu design and development.
Qantas Domestic CEO Andrew David said: “We’ll continue to deliver the inflight food and beverage experience we know our customers value, just as we work with catering companies in offshore ports for our international flights.”
Eleven catering facilities in Australia already exist under the dnata catering brand (recently rebranded from Alpha Flight Services). Including its travel services businesses, dnata operates in 84 countries with catering operations spanning 65 locations in 13 countries. Add in cargo and ground handling operations and dnata is present at 129 airports.
The UAE company also runs more than 40 restaurant, café and lounge premises. In airport F&B, dnata has partnered with more than a dozen food brands including Left Bank, Grab & Go, World News Café, Catalina, Burger King, Brioche Dorée and Espressamente. Airport F&B locations include Bulgaria, Romania, the UAE and Jordan. Global revenue in FY2016/17 reached AED12.2bn (US$3.32 billion).
