Emirates has announced a new daily connection between Sydney and Christchurch, which will commence operations on July 15.
The new air link is operated as an extension of the Dubai-Sydney daily non-stop service and replace the airline's current Dubai-Melbourne-Christchurch routing, which will instead start connecting Melbourne to Auckland from July 15.
Also effective on that date, the Dubai-Singapore-Melbourne-Auckland service terminated in Melbourne.
Richard Vaughan, senior vice-president East Asia and Australasia at Emirates, said “This move caters to our customers' changing requirements in particular the strong passenger demand for travel between Sydney and Christchurch. We keep a close watch on market trends and are taking the opportunity review our services in Australasia, as we expand our network and aircraft fleet.”
Emirates will continue to operate four flights a day from Dubai to New Zealand – daily to Christchurch and thrice a day to Auckland. On the new Dubai-Sydney-Christchurch routing, Emirates will operate its Airbus A340-500 aircraft, which offers over 500 channels of on-demand personal entertainment in all classes as well as 12 luxurious first class suites, 42 and 204 seats in business and economy class respectively and 1.4 tonnes of belly¬ hold cargo space from its Dubai hub, Emirates offers passengers and shippers from Africa, Europe and the Middle East a speedy non-stop service to New Zealand's north and south islands as well as excellent flight options to four cities in Australia – Sydney (twice daily) Melbourne (twice daily), Perth (daily) and Brisbane (daily). The airline has plans to double services to Perth by October this year.
By Jonna Simon