Emirates will upgauge its third daily Sydney flight to an A380 service, meaning the Gulf carrier will operate an all-A380 route between Dubai and Australia’s busiest airport.
Commencing 4 November 2023, the upgauged service will replace the current Emirates B777-300ER deployed on EK416/7.
Offering 489 seats across three classes, the upgrade will result in 260 extra daily seats and nearly 2,000 extra seats per week between Dubai and Sydney.
Emirates can’t add more frequencies to as it is already utilising its three-slot limit at Sydney Airport.
The other two Sydney A380 services boast four classes, including EK’s latest Premium Economy cabin.
The third NSW service will depart Dubai at 2130 (local time) and arrive in Sydney at 1820, with the return leg to depart SYD at 2110 and touch down in DXB at 0430 (local time).
All up, Emirates offers almost 56,000 seats between Dubai and its four Australian ports, with triple-daily Sydney and Melbourne flights, double-daily Brisbane flights and a daily Perth service.
Adding Adelaide
Elsewhere, Emirates says it intends to return to Adelaide, more than three years after axing the route on account of the COVID pandemic.
To this end, the carrier says it is in “close discussions” with Adelaide Airport about restarting nonstop services between Dubai and the South Australian capital.
According to EK, the SA move would be made possible by the commencement of A350 services in the summer of 2024, which will allow it to expand its global footprint and re-assign long-range aircraft.
Earlier this year, Emirates reinstated its Melbourne-Singapore and Sydney-Christchurch flights, the latter of which reintroduced the only A380 service between Australia and New Zealand.
Currently flying its flagship A380 to over 50 destinations, Emirates says it will also add more cities to its superjumbo operations in the coming months to meet “ever-increasing travel demand globally”.
