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Emirates has announced that it will double its capacity on its Dubai-Sydney route, increasing to two return services per day on its iconic Airbus A380 aircraft.
From 1 March, the Dubai-based airline will increase its number of return services from seven to 14 per week, in light of the Australian government’s announcement to reopen its international borders to tourists.
The new additional flights mean Emirates can fly over 1,000 people into the NSW capital per day.
It comes after Prime Minister Scott Morrison this week announced Australia’s borders are set to finally reopen to fully vaccinated tourists and visa holders from 21 February, marking the first time the country has fully eased its international border restrictions since these were introduced in March 2020.
Flight EK412 will depart Dubai daily at 10:15am local time, arriving in Sydney the following day at 7am, while EK414 departs Dubai daily at 2am local time, and lands in Sydney at 10:30pm.
The return flight from Sydney to Dubai is EK415, which departs Sydney at 6am local time, and lands in Dubai at 1:20pm.
Earlier this month, Emirates announced it had also resumed A380 services to and from Melbourne, replacing its Boeing 777-300ER on daily flights between Melbourne and Dubai, after first reinstating its daily A380 services to Sydney in December.
Emirates said its ever-popular flagship A380 now services a total of 28 global destinations and offers an additional 50 per cent capacity over its 777.
In Australia, on top of its daily Sydney and Melbourne services, Emirates is also currently performing five services per week to Brisbane and three services per week to Perth, both on its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.
Barry Brown, Emirates divisional vice-president for Australasia last week highlighted that 2022 marks Emirates’ 25th year of service to Australia, following its first flight between Melbourne and Dubai in 1996.
“Our commitment to this country remains as strong as it was back then. Adding more seats to our Melbourne service is yet another way of demonstrating our commitment, as we continue to ramp up our services to Australia,” he said.
Emirates joins a growing number of airlines increasing capacity to Australia following the Prime Minister’s announcement.
British Airways also announced this week it will be kickstarting its Sydney to London route again in March, after a two-year pause due to the pandemic.
The first flight, BA15, is scheduled to land in Sydney on 29 March, and will continue to operate five times per week from then.
Services will then increase to daily from 1 April, the airline said.
All services will be operated on a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, or a Boeing 777-300(ER), according to the schedule.
harry anthony fellas
says:will you start up sydney /bkk again or are we stuck with qantas?