Emirates suspends flight to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane

Emirates is suspending flights to Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane until further notice, citing “operational reasons”. The last flight from Brisbane to Dubai, EK431, took off Sunday with flights from Sydney and Melbourne to follow in the next few days. The final flight to Sydney arrives tomorrow and departs for Dubai on Tuesday (EK414/415), while Melbourne’s last flight arrives Tuesday and departs Wednesday (EK408/409). READ: Unruly passengers face $US35,000 fine, jail in crackdown. Flights to Perth were not mentioned in the announcement. “Customers holding tickets with final destinations Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin after the completion of the above flights,’’ the airline said on its website. “Emirates regrets any inconvenience caused. Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact center for rebooking options.” The Australian government is scrambling to redistribute the Emirates capacity to other airlines operating in the region and has announced another 20 repatriation flights between January 31 and March 31. The repatriation flights are over and above the existing caps on returning International travelers,  according to acting Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham. The Emirates move comes after Australia added pre-flight COVID testing and temporarily reduced international arrival caps into the country. The government reduced caps on international arrivals by 50 percent in NSW, Western Australia and Queensland until February 15. It also tightened restrictions on flight crews and quarantine workers while making masks mandatory on all flights and in airports. International aircrew will be required to take a COVID-19 test in Australia every seven days or on arrival, as determined by state health authorities. They will also need to quarantine in dedicated facilities between international flights or for 14 days and will not be able to reposition for an ongoing international service unless via a crew-only flight. Thousands of Australians remain stuck overseas and reducing the flight caps has made it more difficult for them to return home. Emirates earlier in the week suspended all flights to South Africa, the source of a virulent new strain of the coronavirus, again blaming operational reasons.