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Emirates is making its long-awaited return to Adelaide, with daily flights to Dubai set to resume later this year.
The non-stop services, commencing 28 October, will use Emirates’ fleet of Boeing 777-200LR aircraft equipped with business and economy-class cabins. The route will be the first direct connection between Adelaide and Dubai since Emirates halted flights in March 2020 due to the pandemic.
The EK440/441 service will depart Dubai at 2am, landing in Adelaide at 8:50pm before returning at 10:35pm for a 5:15am arrival in Dubai (all times local). Each flight will offer 302 seats, for a total of more than 4,200 seats per week between Dubai and Adelaide.
Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said he is “delighted” that the service will be daily from the beginning, as it was pre-COVID, calling it a “real sign of confidence in the Adelaide market”.
“Our customers will once again benefit from Emirates’ extensive global network via Dubai, offering greater competition and customer choice, including through Emirates’ code-sharing and frequent flying joint venture arrangement with Qantas, connecting through the Middle East to Europe, Africa and even East Coast US,” he said.
“The service will attract international visitors to Adelaide and be critical for our tourism economy, for trade and our broader economy. South Australia must continue to apply maximum throttle against fierce global competition to capture the aviation routes essential to the State’s development.
“Adelaide Airport is focused on unlocking the State’s potential and is working to support our current carriers, recover our mainland China and Hong Kong customers and open up new direct access to our large unserved markets like Japan and the United States.”
The South Australian government anticipates that the return of daily Emirates flights to Adelaide will generate more than $62 million in tourism expenditure alone. Premier Peter Malinauskas said the return of Emirates has been a “key priority” for his government.
“Emirates once again flying daily direct into Adelaide will further drive South Australia’s economic growth – set to deliver an estimated $160 million in tourism expenditure and freight exports and create more than 315 full-time tourism-related jobs for South Australians,” he said.
“The Emirates service has been very much missed by South Australians – recommencing daily flights will make Adelaide easier to reach from key long-haul markets and make doing business with our state easier.”
Emirates is a codeshare partner of Qantas, which is yet to resume international services from Adelaide in its own right, though subsidiary Jetstar operates flights to Bali.
Premier Malinauskas last year called on the Flying Kangaroo to bring back Qantas-branded international flights out of Adelaide, which have not been seen since the axing of a Singapore service in 2013.
“It’s been, I think, a decade since Qantas has served Adelaide on an international route, and we would love to see that change,” he said.
“I made that clear to Alan Joyce, and I’ll be making it clear to [new CEO Vanessa] Hudson at an appropriate opportunity.
“I think sometimes we’ve seen evidence of Qantas wanting to enjoy the status of being the national flag carrier. If they want to uphold that, I think they should be looking closely at Adelaide.”
Adelaide Airport is currently served internationally by Air New Zealand, Batik Air, Batik Air Malaysia, Fiji Airways, Jetstar, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, Vietjet, and Virgin Australia.
