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Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas.

QANTAS chief Alan Joyce has sought to allay fears about the split of its international flying operations from the domestic business, insisting that the benefits will "greatly outweigh" any negatives, such as duplication of services across the two new units.

As it attempts to turn around the international operations, Mr Joyce also confirmed at the weekend that the airline has a project team considering whether to apply for a separate commercial airline licence - known as an air operator's certificate - for one of the two new divisions.

Deutsche Bank analysts have speculated that the split could open the way for Emirates to invest directly in Qantas' domestic business, the core of its earnings. The Middle Eastern airline has shown interest in forging a code-share deal with Qantas.

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But Qantas has maintained that the split is aimed at "giving accountability and direction" to the new divisions, and was not a precursor to it copying Virgin Australia's recent ownership changes. Virgin's shake up has opened the way for foreign institutional investors and airlines to invest in its core domestic business.

The Qantas Sale Act, which limits total foreign investment to 49 per cent, is also more onerous than those restrictions imposed on other airlines such as Virgin, a point Qantas has made many times.

"There is a lot of speculation about other reasons. To be absolutely clear, the reason why we are doing this is to give an open and transparent view of the different businesses Qantas has," Mr Joyce said. "There is no subtext behind this."

Insiders have also questioned whether the split will result in unnecessary duplication of services across the international and domestic businesses, or managers protecting their patches to the detriment of the entire company.

But Mr Joyce said the domestic and international flying operations already had "very different and separate businesses internally", including their own revenue management and pricing teams.

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Mostly benefits in Qantas split, says Joyce