Dubai’s Dnata agrees to acquire Qantas’ catering business

Dnata, the air service arm of Dubai’s Emirates Group, has announced a deal to acquire the catering business of Australian airline Qantas.

The deal includes the wholly-owned subsidiaries of Q Catering Limited and Snap Fresh Pty Limited.

The former has centres at Australia’s Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth and marks Qantas as its largest customer. Under the agreement, Dnata will provide Qantas with catering for flights for an initial period of 10 years and the airline will be a key supplier for menu design and development.

Snap Fresh has a meal production plant in Queensland specialising in Australian-made frozen meals for the airline and retail industries.

The value of the transaction was not disclosed and it is subject to approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)

“This agreement reflects our confidence in Australia as a market and the ongoing growth potential into the future,” said Dnata’s senior vice president of catering Robin Padgett.

“By combining dnata’s network strength and international talent with Qantas’ domestic catering expertise, this will allow us to further grow our presence and deliver catering excellence to more customers across Australia than ever before.”

Dnata already operates 11 catering facilities in Australia, previously known as Alpha Flight Services.

The company said it also planned to establish a new catering facility in Sydney.

Last August, Emirates Group’s airline division also extended a partnership with Qantas for another five years.

Read: Emirates and Qantas extend partnership for five more years

Globally, dnata recently opened new catering facilities in Dublin and Melbourne and is constructing another in Vancouver.

Read: Dubai’s dnata secures Canadian catering licence

It has also announced a deal to acquire New York-based 121 inflight catering.