I'm sure A380-300 will fill in the accurate details, but what he is talking about is the fact that the 380 operates to the old A340 schedule, in spite of being significantly faster. This has meant it regularly arriving at Sydney before curfew and having to hold until the airport opens.
It is EK policy for commercial reasons to stick to this schedule and carry the extra fuel needed to hold until 6am.
As to Pax numbers, it's chockas into SYD nearly every day. I recently tried for 3 days to get on ID90 and eventually had to go via BNE.
And yes, we pay retail for fuel, and am in fact currently getting hammered (though not to the same extent as the likes of CX) by the fact that we are hedged too high. The UAE exports OIL (and Dubai not much of that). It has no refining capability and buys the finished product from the Petro-Cos the same as every-one else.