Emirates reaffirms its commitment to Australia with 100% capacity on flights to Sydney and Melbourne

With Australia’s borders re-opened to international travelers from November, Emirates welcomes this move by enhancing its operations to the country to meet pent up demand for travel into and out of Australia. With vaccination rates in New South Wales having reached their target, and Victoria being not far behind, the two states will allow vaccinated travelers to return to Australia without quarantine.

In response to the easing of travel restrictions, from November Emirates stepped up the frequency on flights EK414/415 between Dubai and Sydney to daily operated by a Boeing 777-300ER. Flights to Melbourne will operate as a four-weekly service as EK408/409, with the potential to increase in line with demand.

In another positive sign that the recovery is well underway for Australia, capacity on flights to Sydney and Melbourne returned to 100%, allowing 354 passengers across all cabins to travel on its flights. Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate family members are now able to enjoy unrestricted travel once again to and from the two points for the first time since the pandemic began, whether travelling abroad to global destinations for leisure or finally travelling home to visit family or friends, as long as they are vaccinated against COVID-19 with a TGA-approved vaccine.

From 1 December, Emirates’ flagship A380 aircraft, will also return to the Australian skies once again, serving the Dubai-Sydney route, on a daily basis. The much-loved aircraft will offer 516 seats in a three-class configuration, with 426 seats in Economy Class, in addition to its premium cabins, with 76 and 14 seats in Business Class and First Class, respectively.

Commenting on the airline’s ramp up of operations to Australia with the easing of travel restrictions, Barry Brown, Emirates Divisional Vice President for Australasia, said: “We are extremely delighted to once again be able to extend our services to Australians, with the capacity and frequency that they deserve. Passengers will appreciate the return to normality – for vaccinated travelers wishing to go home to Australia, this will mean no more restrictions on capacity and no quarantine on arrival into New South Wales or Victoria, ultimately allowing them to see their families sooner.

“We would like to thank our customers for their loyalty as we navigated the challenges together since the start of the pandemic. We are more than ever committed to Australia and it is especially exciting for us to add Sydney to the growing network of destinations served by our popular A380 aircraft. Our customers appreciate the spaciousness and amenities of the flagship A380 and starting in December they will be able to experience the exceptional product when flying to or from Sydney,” added Brown.

Customers 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 customers have access to over 55 Australian destinations though the partnership, while Qantas customers are able to fly on Emirates to Dubai and access over 50 cities in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Emirates continues to operate to Brisbane and Perth with government–mandated capacity restrictions in place, requiring all passengers to undergo a 14-day mandatory quarantine until travel restrictions are relaxed in Queensland and Western Australia.