Emirates has announced that it will add a second daily Airbus A380 service to Melbourne in May to meet the demand for international travel following borders re-opening.
Starting 1st May 2022, Emirates will operate twice-daily flights between Dubai International and Melbourne Airport. The expansion of services is supported by the Victorian Government to help fast-track the return of international flights to Melbourne and bring more visitors to the state. Emirates has already been operating twice-daily A380 flights to Sydney.
The A380 service which is currently operating runs with the following schedule:
- Dubai-Melbourne
- Departure time: 02:40
- Arrival time: 21:50
- Flight time: 13 hours and 10 minutes
- Flight number: EK408
- Frequency: Daily
- Melbourne-Dubai
- Departure time: 21:15
- Arrival time: 05:15 (the next day)
- Flight time: 14 hours
- Flight number: EK409
- Frequency: Daily
The A380 service which the airline will operate starting 1st May 2022 will run with the following schedule:
- Dubai-Melbourne
- Departure time: 10:05
- Arrival time: 05:30 (the next day)
- Flight time: 13 hours and 25 minutes
- Flight number: EK406
- Frequency: Daily
- Melbourne-Dubai
- Departure time: 05:15
- Arrival time: 13:10
- Flight time: 13 hours and 55 minutes
- Flight number: EK409
- Frequency: Daily
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Emirates’ A380s that will operate flights to Melbourne feature 516 seats – 14 First Class suites, 76 lie-flat Business Class seats and 426 standard Economy Class seats.
The additional daily frequency between Dubai and Melbourne will grow Emirates’ seats to over 1,000 a day totalling 700,000 a year between the airline’s Dubai hub and Victoria. The addition of the second daily A380 service will also offer customers more convenience with the option of choosing a morning or evening flight, for optimal onwards connection opportunities when they stop in Dubai.
Before the pandemic, international flights brought more than 3.1 million visitors to Victoria each year and injected $8.8 billion into the economy. Emirates carried 22% of the 1.3 million passengers that arrived in Victoria from key European countries such as Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Switzerland, which added $86 million to the Victorian economy in 2019.
Barry Brown, Divisional Vice President for Australasia, Emirates, said:
As an international airline that has been serving Australia for over 25 years, we are especially delighted to boost our services to Melbourne, adding yet more seats and flight options to the Victorian capital. Our second daily A380 service reaffirms our ongoing commitment to Australia and our loyal passengers as demand for international travel continues to increase. The newly expanded flight schedule also means our customers can experience three continents in one day, enjoying their breakfast in Australia, lunch in Dubai, and dinner in Europe. Emirates’ inaugural flight to Australia arrived in Melbourne in 1996. Since then, we have carried more than 11 million passengers on this key route and we are delighted that Victorian travellers and businesses can continue to enjoy the global reach that our expansive network offers.
With Australia being the third-largest destination for Emirates’ A380 operations, the airline says that it has been continuously committed to increasing flights to Australia which will soar to 42-weekly flights in May, with the airline’s flagship flying to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. From then Victoria and News South Wales capitals (Melbourne and Sydney) will be served by twice daily flights and the Queensland capital (Brisbane) once daily, operating on the iconic A380 aircraft. Starting 1st May 2022, Emirates will once-again operate a daily flight between Dubai and Perth using its Boeing B777-300ERs.
As travellers across Australia begin to travel overseas again, Emirates has extended its flexible booking policies to August 2022 in the instance travel plans need to be adjusted. Some tickets can be extended by up to 36 months in line with the airline’s dedication to flexibility.
Passengers of Emirates and Qantas have access to an expansive network of destinations thanks to the codeshare partnership between the two airlines. In addition to over 120 destinations that Emirates flies to, its passengers currently have access to nearly 30 Australian destinations through the partnership, while Qantas customers can fly on Emirates to Dubai and access over 50 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Meanwhile, Emirates recently announced that it will re-instate pre-pandemic flight frequencies to India in April 2022.
Featured image by Emirates
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