Emirates, the flag carrier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has announced that it will ramp up flights to Australia after the country reopens its borders for international travel.
Most prominently, the airline’s flagship will fly once again on the Dubai (DXB)-Sydney (SYD) route starting from December 1.
The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, will take over the service from a Boeing 777-300ER and conduct daily flights, carrying up to 516 passengers between the cities.
Additionally, Emirates is going to conduct bi-weekly service between Dubai (DXB) and Melbourne (MEL), and allow its aircraft to be filled to full capacity.
Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Emirates conducted regular passenger flights to Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), Brisbane (BNE) and Perth (PER), and a freighter service to Sydney.
All the destinations were served by the A380, and an additional flight between Sydney and New Zealand’s Christchurch (CHC) was conducted by Emirates.
The company stopped all A380 flights in March 2020, before slowly resuming operations in July 2020. It has been one of the few A380 operators to remain optimistic about superjumbo’s future, promising to restore 70% of the aircraft’s service by the end of 2021.