Originally Posted by
philbky
Whilst what you say regarding what happens to the aircraft in Auckland is true, the rest is far too simplistic a relating of the story. The Auckland Airport Authority was looking for new services to connect to Europe, only ANZ offering a once a day through plane service over LAX. Other routes involved changing in Australia, Singapore or Hong Kong often with extended layovers.
As you say, Emirates had three aircraft doing nothing in Australia for long periods and, seemingly they were happy with this. The Auckland Airport Authority approached Emirates and offered slots and reasonable charges. They had to make a sound case for each route which took some time and negotiation. The benefit for the airport was not only the easy connection to Europe over Dubai but the uplift on the Australia- New Zealand sector which helped reduce the numbers of 737/A320 flights between the two countries by up to 600 flights a year, important in a country with strong environmental credentials. How do I know this? Because my cousin was Chair of the Authority at the time and initiated and saw through the negotiations.
The New Zealand - Europe market is now so strong for Emirates that an additional service has been started direct to and from Dubai, currently the world's longest non stop service. The story of that service is here.
Emirates Launches Milestone Dubai-Auckland Non-Stop Route
"The intelligent mis-use of aeroplanes" in practice.
My son. a merchant navy officer joining his ship, took that flight last Thursday, having flown LGW/DXB on a 380 -
afaik EK have just started putting 380s into LGW. He will now go out of his way to seek out 380s.