Emirates Begins To Bounce Back In Brisbane

Emirates is welcoming a return to full capacity on its Boeing 777-300ER flights into Brisbane. After nearly 18 months of stringent restrictions on how many passengers Emirates can fly in, from Thursday, December 16, the airline will start filling every seat on its Brisbane-bound flights.

Emirates will start operating flights to Brisbane and Perth at full capacity. Photo: Emirates

Emirates ups capacity as entry rules into Brisbane relax

In addition to flights to Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth, Emirates has largely maintained flights to Brisbane since the onset of the travel downturn – albeit on a scaled-back basis. Since July 2020, Australian Government rules have severely curtailed who and how many passengers Emirates (and other airlines) could fly into Australian airports such as Brisbane.

Those rules have recently begun to ease. That’s seen Emirates restore A380 flights to Sydney and introduce a daily flight into Melbourne. Now, it’s Brisbane’s turn. Government restrictions on international travel into Brisbane have just eased after Queensland achieved its target to reach a double-dose vaccination rate of 80%.

As a result, flights can come in full, and eligible passengers can skip the Queensland State Government imposed 14-day quarantine requirement.

Dubai-based Emirates now flies to Brisbane three days a week. However, the airline will increase its Brisbane flights (EK430) to five days a week from January 1. Emirates uses a three-class Boeing 777-300ER on the 7,442 mile (11,977 kilometer) nonstop sector. It takes just under 14 hours to cover the distance.

Until early 2020, Emirates ran three flights a day into Brisbane. That included an A380 service – the only airline to operate the aircraft type into the Queensland capital. Those three flights a day made Emirates one of the biggest foreign carriers (in terms of passenger capacity) flying into Brisbane.

Until the travel downturn, Emirates flew three times a day into Brisbane, with an A380 operating one of those flights. Photo: Emirates

Perth gets a boost, but Adelaide is still off Emirates’ radar

Emirates’ Perth-bound flights will begin operating at full capacity from February 5. Western Australia has flagged relaxing its quarantine rules then. Simultaneously, the frequency of flights EK420/421 on the Dubai-Perth route will also increase to five times weekly. Emirates is expecting healthy demand on its Brisbane and Perth services.

“Emirates is excited to increase our inbound capacity to Brisbane and Perth as part of the continued return of international travel across the country,” says Emirates Divisional Vice President Australasia, Barry Brown. “This comes as we’re celebrating 25 years of flying to Australia and have already increased our services to Sydney and Melbourne and brought back our flagship A380 to serve our customers traveling into and out of New South Wales.”

Emirates is increasing its frequencies into Brisbane to five flights a week. Photo: Brisbane Airport Corporation

There is no word from Emirates about restarting its Adelaide flights. The airline suspended its flights to the South Australian capital in July 2020. At the time, Emirates said they hoped to restart services when it was commercially and operationally viable.

Emirates is likely to lean on its codeshare partner and oneworld buddy Qantas for the foreseeable future. The big Australian airline can ferry Adelaide-based passengers to either Melbourne or Perth and transfer onto Emirates metal there.

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