Emirates Axes Sydney-Auckland Airbus A380 Flights

[Grahame Hutchison]

From Australian Business Traveller


Emirates will cancel its daily Airbus A380 flights between Sydney and Auckland from July 13 2017, with the Gulf carrier saying the superjumbo service is being retired "to optimise capacity on this route in line with changes in demand."
In its place Qantas will upgrade four daily Sydney-Auckland services – QF140/146 and QF143/149 – from Boeing 737s to Airbus A330s sporting the airline's highly-regarded Business Suite seats at the pointy end.
Full Article (https://www.ausbt.com.au/emirates-axes-sydney-auckland-airbus-a380-flights)

It will be interesting to see if the Dubai-Sydney schedules change time wise for maximum utilisation of the aircraft.

[James Smith]

I wonder how much the direct Auckland - Dubai A380 flight has affected loads on Emirates Sydney - Auckland and their other Auckland trans-tasman flights.

It is great to see a QANTAS A332 being used to Auckland up to twice per day. QANTAS did operate at least one of their daily Sydney - Auckland and return flights with the A332 over the Christmas/New Year period.

[MarkR]

[/B]It will be interesting to see if the Dubai-Sydney schedules change time wise for maximum utilisation of the aircraft.

The aircraft that goes to Auckland is currently the one from BKK.

[James Smith]

...which if it doesn't go onto Auckland will sit in Sydney from when it arrives from Bangkok at 7:40 until it departs back to Bangkok at 18:30, without a schedule change.

[S.Greaves]

As a commuter on flights to NZ I a sorry to see the A380 come off the run, but it's a matter of profitability. I try to make sure I avoid a B737 or A320 whenever going to NZ. Similarly going to Perth where I always make sure I am on an A332. EK also have competition with the non stop AKL-DOH flts. Often wondered if the number of EK tails at AKL each afternoon was the largest at one airport outside of DXB?

[Greg Hyde]

Qantas to add widebody A330 Sydney-Auckland flights as Emirates drops route

Qantas will operate Airbus A330-200 widebody services across the Tasman on a permanent basis from July as its alliance partner Emirates withdraws A380 tag flights between Sydney and Auckland.

The Qantas A330s will operate a double daily weekday service on the Sydney-Auckland route starting July 13, replacing Boeing 737-800 narrowbody services. There will also be six A330 flights over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Emirates will end its EK418/419 Sydney-Auckland-Sydney offering (which operates as part of a Dubai-Bangkok-Sydney-Auckland rotation) and instead serve the route via its codeshare agreement with Qantas.

http://australianaviation.com.au/2017/05/qantas-to-add-widebody-sydney-auckland-flights-as-emirates-drops-route/