Dubai, Emirates Airlines inaugurated today its daily Airbus A380 non-stop flight service to Melbourne and on to Auckland. The Airbus A380, operating as EK406, one of the three daily Emirates flights to Melbourne, departs Dubai at 10:10hrs (local time) and arrives in Melbourne at 05:35hrs the following day.

The flight continues to Auckland, departing Melbourne at 07:10hrs and arriving in Auckland at 134:5hrs. The return flight, EK407, departs Auckland at 1850hrs, arriving in Melbourne at 19:50hrs, before leaving for Dubai at 21:25hrs arriving at 05:25hrs the next day.

On board the inaugural flight was Salem Obaidalla, Emirates’ senior vice president, commercial operations,
Far East & Australasia; John Butler - Commissioner to the Middle East and North Africa, Government of Victoria; and the Emirates Melbourne Cup.

Obaidalla said, “Today is an important day in the history of Emirates and Australia. In 1996, Melbourne became our first destination in Australasia and it is fantastic that we can celebrate our long-term partnership with Victoria with the launch of our daily, non-stop Airbus A380 services. The introduction of the A380 increases Melbourne’s capacity on the Dubai and Auckland sectors by more than 500 seats per day - which will further stimulate tourism and trade between the UAE, our global network, Australia and New Zealand.

The A380 is an exceptional aircraft and has been in the pipeline for the Melbourne market for a few years. Today’s launch kick starts an exciting period of growth in our Australian business, from 1st November we launch non-stop flights to Adelaide and from 1st December introduce a third daily flight to Perth.”

Emirates A380 services to Melbourne and Auckland are a key component to the Global Aviation Partnership announced with Qantas in September. Pending regulatory approval, from April 2013 Melbourne travellers will experience seamless connectivity across the Emirates and Qantas networks, exclusive frequent flyer benefits and the choice of four daily services to Dubai - two of which will be non-stop A380 services - connecting to over 70 destinations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.’

Emirates currently has 25 Airbus A380s in service which now fly to Amsterdam, Auckland, Bangkok, Beijing, Hong Kong, Jeddah, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, Melbourne, Manchester, Munich, New York JFK, Paris, Rome, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, Toronto, Tokyo from its Dubai Hub. Additional A380 destinations are planed this year include Singapore and Moscow (both from 1 December 2012).