But does this show a souring of relations with QF? Currently if you book BA to MEL, you are put on SYD-MEL on QF. Now you’ll just go on QR from DOH.
Not really. BA already codeshare with CX and MH to Australia. I also expect that neither QF or BA sees each other as the key competition. I expect that they see the Gulf and mainland Chinese carriers as the real competition.
I also wonder if QF might be building up to ditch the EK partnership, which appears less close than it once did.