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It wasn’t long after we started seeing signs that Australia was starting to open up that Emirates scheduled an A380 to taker over its route to Sydney and now, in a further sign that airlines are increasingly confident that travel to Oz will be a lot more ‘normal’ in the near future, Emirates is set to return the A380 to Melbourne as well.
The Emirates Melbourne route
The Emirates Airbus A380 will make its reappearance on the Dubai – Melbourne route on 1 February 2022 and will replace the Boeing 777-300ER that currently operates the route’s daily service.
Here’s what the schedule looks like for the first full week of February:
EK408 DXB 03:00 – 23:20 MEL (Daily)
EK409 MEL 22:30 – 05:40+1 day DXB (Daily)
Note: Schedules can change with very little notice so double-check routings and timings before you book.
The Emirates A380 returns to Sydney too
For completeness, it seems right to include the schedule for the A380 that will take over the Dubai – Sydney route from 1 December:
EK414 DXB 02:00 – 22:30 SYD (Daily)
EK415 SYD 21:45 – 05:15+1 day DXB (Daily)
The A380 is scheduled to continue operating this route through to the end of the current bookable period.
The Australia Emirates A380
Emirates offers its A380 aircraft with four different cabin configurations so the first thing to note is that the A380s that Emirates has currently scheduled on its routes to Sydney and Melbourne are not the aircraft that offer the new Emirates Premium Economy cabin.
These routes would seem to be prime candidates to get the new Premium Economy cabin but with only around 5 Emirates A380s currently equipped to offer Premium Economy seating, Australia may have to wait a little longer before this becomes an option.
Still, the A380s that will operate to Sydney and Melbourne will be a nice upgrade on the 777s that currently operate these routes with more First Class and Business Class seats on offer, with both premium cabins offering better seats than the 777s (the A380 Business Class cabin is significantly better than the 777 Business Class cabin) and with customers in both premium cabins able to enjoy the A380’s bar.
The A380 is not always the best premium cabin aircraft operated by the airlines that still have the whale jet in their fleet, but in Emirates’ case, it’s almost always the best option.
Bottom Line
Emirates has now scheduled an Airbus A380 to take over its daily flights between Dubai and Melbourne from 1 February 2022 so with Sydney already scheduled to see an Emirates A380 return to its skies in a little over a week’s time, premium capacity on Emirates’ key Australia routes is about to increase significantly.
Featured image courtesy of Denise Jans
