Qantas and Emirates announced more changes to their partnership today, with bad news for travellers who were looking forward to flying between Australia and New Zealand with Emirates.
From March 2018, Emirates will stop flying from Melbourne and Brisbane to Auckland, retaining only its daily A380 flights between Sydney and Christchurch.
At the same time, Qantas will increase the frequency of its services between Australia and New Zealand, adding seven new return flights per week between Melbourne and Auckland and two return services per week between Brisbane and Auckland.
Some of these services will be up-gauged from a 737 to a much more comfortable A330.
Qantas’ new trans-Tasman services will carry Emirates code and will connect to Qantas’ London services via Perth or Singapore and Emirates’ services between Australia and Europe via Dubai.
Emirates will reportedly reschedule some of its Australian flights to Dubai to create a better spread of departure times throughout the day.
Emirates is evaluating potential new direct services between New Zealand and Dubai.
These latest changes are included in the airlines’ pitch to regulators to extend their joint venture for another five years.
Tickets for Qantas’ new Tasman services will be available progressively from tomorrow.
Emirates customers with existing bookings impacted by the Tasman changes will be re-accommodated onto Qantas services or will be given the option to change their flights.
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