Emirates is pulling its Airbus A380s off the competitive Sydney-Auckland route to be replaced by Qantas Airbus A330s operated under the airlines’ partnership agreement.
Qantas will introduce twice daily services using its two-class A330-200 aircraft on the Sydney-Auckland route from July 13 to replace Emirates EK 418 and EK 419 services. The exceptions will be the Saturday evening Sydney-Auckland and Sunday morning Auckland-Sydney services, which will be operated by Boeing 737s unless demand prompts an upgrade.
The change means Qantas will offer a total of five return flights per day between Sydney and Auckland — two a day with the A330, plus three on Boeing 737 aircraft — to boost weekly services from 32 to 35 return flights.
The upgraded A330s will operate on the Tasman for the first time and feature 28 of the airline’s acclaimed business seats as well as 243 in economy. The most common Emirates A380 has three classes and 489 seats.
“The Tasman is a dynamic market and we saw the need to optimise capacity on this route in line with changes in demand,’’ Emirates divisional vice president for Australiasia Barry Brown said in a statement.
“Our partner Qantas was well positioned to service this route based on current demand and we’re pleased to have the flexibility to work with them to offer a service with an aircraft that is more in line with capacity needs. ‘’
Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans said the schedule changes would mean customers travelling to and from New Zealand have more convenient options to connect with the broader Qantas and Emirates network, especially into Asia.
The first of the new A330 services will offer connections from Auckland via Sydney to Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Bangkok, Los Angeles and Johannesburg with Qantas, while the second will connect to Emirates’ daily Sydney-Bangkok flights.
“One of the advantages of the Qantas-Emirates partnership is the flexibility we have with our combined fleets,” Evans said, predicting the A330s would be well-received on the Tasman.
Gulf carriers have had to tighten their belts as increased competition and other factors cut profits.
The Emirates Group suffered a 70 per cent slump in annual profit for 2016-17 and officials predicted another challenging year due to “hyper competition" and volatility in many markets.
The lower group result of $US670 million for the year ending March 31 came as profits from the airline operations plummeted 82 per cent to $US340 million after a record year in 2015-16.
Separately, Bloomberg reported that Emirates was planning to reduce the number of berths in first class cabins.
The report said a new premium section to be unveiled in November on its Boeing 777-300ERs would have six private suites instead of eight and quoted Emirates president Tim Clark as saying would sport “a totally fresh new look’’.
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