Qantas has announced its intention to buy the remaining 80 percent of Alliance Aviation for 641 million Australian dollars -444.6 million United States dollars-, to integrate the regional carrier to its domestic business.

The deal, still subject to Alliance’s shareholders vote and competition regulatory clearance, would transfer all Alliance assets to Qantas, including 26 Fokker 100, 13 Fokker 70 and 33 Embraer 190, 18 of those being operated by Alliance for QantasLink.

Australia’s flag carrier bought 20 percent of Alliance Aviation in February 2019 and expressed the interest on a full acquisition. The company states that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigated that minority holding and found no evidence that such move has «lessened competition.»

Fourteen of those Embraer, previously owned by Copa Airlines, were acquired cheap by Alliance in the initial stages of the pandemic, when the Panamanian carrier decided to eliminate the E190 from its fleet.

In a later deal signed in December 2020, Alliance took another batch of E190s from American Airlines that were decommissioned from AA in April of that same year.

Alan Joyce, Qantas’ CEO, said that “Alliance’s fleet of Fokker aircraft are perfect for efficiently serving resources customers in WA and Queensland. They also have a big inventory of spare parts that would significantly extend the practical life of a combined fleet of around almost 70 Fokkers.

“We’ve opened several new passenger routes using up to 18 of Alliance’s E190s, so bringing all thirty-three of these aircraft, plus their crews, into the Qantas Group would really expand what we could achieve.

“We plan to extend our program of guaranteed lower fares for residents in those few communities where Alliance operates its own passenger services, as well as access to our Frequent Flyer program,” he concluded.