Gulf giant Emirates says it is seeing good demand for a new service joining two of the world’s popular holiday spots through a new flight from Dubai to Auckland via Bali.
The airline is operating the year-round route using a Boeing 777-300ER featuring eight first-class seats, 42 in business and 304 in economy. The new service joins two existing Dubai-Bali services operated by B777-300ERs in a two-class configuration.
“We are very pleased to see the interest this new route has created since it was announced in mid-February, reflected in strong bookings from Auckland to Bali and beyond, as well as southbound from our global network,’’ Emirates president Tim Clark said as the inaugural flight touched down to water cannon salutes in Bali and Auckland.
“’Markets such as the UK, Europe and the Middle East have all responded keenly to the new option provided by us opening up this route. Bali and Auckland are both desirable destinations in the eyes of our customers.”
Emirates also expects the new route to support increased trade between Indonesia and New Zealand, noting Emirates SkyCargo will offer up to 20 tonnes of cargo capacity on the aircraft per flight.
Watch Emirates superjumbo creates a snowy blast.
It says this will provide an opportunity for Indonesian exports, imports and transhipments through Denpasar as well as exports from New Zealand including cut flowers, fresh produce and chilled foods including fish.
The new service means Emirates will offer three daily services to New Zealand. The others are a non-stop daily A380 flight between Dubai and Auckland and a daily A380 service between Dubai and Christchurch via Sydney, the last remaining Australia-New Zealand service.
The airline says demand from New Zealand is from leisure travelers keen to visit Bali but it also expects strong from Indonesia tourist and students attending courses in New Zealand.
Apart from the opportunity for a stopover in Bali, Emirates says the new service also provides good connections with London and other major European cities.
The southbound flight, EK 450, departs Dubai at 07:05, arriving at Denpasar (Bali) at 20:20 local time, before flying on to Auckland at 22:00, arriving in New Zealand’s biggest city at 10:00, the following day.
Northbound, the new service leaves Auckland as flight EK 451 at the convenient time of 12:50, arriving in Denpasar at 17:55 local time.
It departs Denpasar at 19:50, arriving in Dubai just after midnight at 00:45, connecting to flights to many of the points beyond on the Emirates and flydubai partnership network.
