Emirates Tasman Shuttles

[Chocks Away]

Starting next month Emirates begin their B777 out of Melbourne on dayly, multiple shuttles across the Tasman to Auckland.

Melbourne first, with Sydney and Brisbane doing the same shortly.

Boyo, this Tasman market is going to be flooded with seats!
Brand new B777 seats, compared with B737s etc.... not to mention pricing!?

[star gold]

I think you will find the BNE - AKL started on Oct 27.

[Chocks Away]

Was that Multiple shuttles though? not just the straight AKLs out of Syd, Bne & ML they do already?.
It's planned to have 2 to 3 dayly returns out of each, ontop of the "extensions" from SQ.

[Capt Fathom]

Multiple Shuttles?
Certainly not reflected in the timetables.
After their early morning arrival in Australia, the aircraft
normally sit on the ground during the day, before departing again in the evening back to Singapore.
A Tasman return takes the best part of 9 hours, which helps to fill in the day.
Unless they are planning on having aircraft based here, they could only fit in one shuttle.
BNE- AKL- BNE shows Airbus A330.

[Chocks Away]

Yeh, as well as the new A340 long haul on the Syd leg soon.

Out of SY, the most a B777 in on the ground is 90min. 5 hours on grd at AKL though.

Only going off my mates roster next month, doing ML-AKL-ML runs only, for some days. More crews out of ML than the normal SQ-ML-AKL crews. Possibly more airframes too. Says SY and BN up next.

Something bigs about to happen!?:}

[skywest_xr]

You'll find EK will probably soon announce there DXB-PER-AKL-PER-DXB flights on top of there current daily DXB-PER-DXB flights.

Expect the flights to arrive in perth 1800, be on the ground for 90 minutes, then continue to AKL as a red eye. Returning to PER by about midday the next day then back on to DXB

[ReadMyACARS]

...Brand new B777 seats, compared with B737s etc.

If you think that Emirates has an advantage over anyone else with their seats you are going to be sadly disapointed.

Even the FA's think that Emirates seats are the most uncomfortable in the buisness.

After commuting to the Middle East with EK for last year, I went to NZ with QF and would recommend QF any day of the week. Emirates seats are unbelivably hard and small. The entertainment may be better, but when your trapped in the middle of a 777 for 11.5 hours with a numb bum and a sore back, no amount or quality of entertainment makes it a nicer experience


RMA

[cyclops camel]

No mystery here, boys. The aircraft currently do one AKL per day from each of BNE, SYD and MEL.
Equipment in November is A332 out of BNE and B773 out of SYD and MEL.
With the introduction of the A345 on the SYD route from December 1st, the BNE flight will become B773. I speculate that all Australian/NZ flights will become A345 as we take more deliveries.
Rumors of multiple shuttles are incorrect but probably evolved because our roster pairings have changed such that a crew will now spend a few days longer in Oz while doing shuttles on subsequent days. This is to overcome fatigue reported by most crews by keeping them in your time zone longer.
As an aside, I saw our new A345 here in DXB when it arrived this week. Awesome! And yes, Chocks Away, a little more impressive than the 737! :D

[Chocks Away]

:D Thanks Camel. That explains it. From observing my mates movements, it's 13 hours rest here, 24 hours there, 5 in AKL. They certainly keep you moving.

RMA, that's sad to hear about the seats, given all else of high acclaim on the 777. Given that, I wonder why/how EK have continuously won so many Awards over the past Decade?.

:ok:

[oldhasbeen]

Hate to be the cynic, chocks, but awards have and always will be given to the airline that either pays for the most advertising in a magazine or else gives the most freebies in first/business class to the "judges". :suspect:

[cyclops camel]

Yet another change to the pairings ex BNE and SYD yesterday, gents. We now have 24 hours off in AKL each trip.
Expect to be knocked over by the rush of Kiwi crew!!
CC.

[ReadMyACARS]

Chocks, once you join the Skywards program they send you reminder notices with a URL link onto the voting site for various awards they are lobbying for.

That said, they do have good food and really good entertainment. They also have a really good upgrade program for skywards members.

Its just those bloody seats....

[thumpa]

I hears on the grapevine

The 777 is fasr too big for the market out of all East Coast cities. Hence they are considering setting up little emirate shuttles across the Tasman using A320's. Wishworth to crew them with bases in Kiwiland.

[Buster Hyman]

Probably true thumpa, but surely that defeats the purpose?

Consider they are using aircraft that would normally be parked for these services (I imagine). These AKL runs are raising revenue at a time when the aircraft would be incurring debt.

AN had the same idea with the Bali runs on a Saturday evening. The aircraft used to sit around all night, so it was money for jam really. I guess EK are doing exactly the same thing. But setting up a new type & the associated costs would diminish the returns I'd think.

:confused:

[Don Esson]

24 hour crew slips in Auckland are neither efficient nor cost effective. Nor does it make sense to have smaller aircraft based in this part of the world. To 'make money' with their 777s or A340s, EK simply have to make sure that the revenue on the Tasman exceeds the direct operating costs. Standing charges will be incurred no matter if the aeroplanes fly or remain on the ground in Australia.

This is not clever stuff and shows how easy it is for foreigners (EK, TG etc) to muddy someone else's (QF/NZ) pond!.

[Colonel Blink]

Having a range of Aussie cities (BNE, MEL and SYD) on their schedule is also advantageous in getting the back packers and sucket and spade mob on their flights - it makes the route more sellable (if in the UK look how the likes of Oztravel package their itineries - they make big play of the stopovers available)

Cyclops - any truth in the PER bit above??

[halas]

Perth is on the cards for next year.

To satisfy the Minister for Qantas' whims, EK have to service four ports in Australia to gain extra slots into Sydney.

This is now complete.

Things change daily around here, but for the moment it looks like a few extra services to Melbourne each week (three or four), and Perth Auckland to kick off the push for more Sydney flights.

EK start San Francisco next year with the 345. And the 345 will be already set up on the Sydney - Auckland service.

With and aeroplane like that and those two trans pacific ports to be in service....well, you join the dots on that one.

And to Make EK the carrier of choice for the antipodean mob, another six european destinations next year. And all only one stop away from Sydney.

Now if you can only get on the bloody thing with 80 less seats than a 773, not to mention the loss of over three ton of freight each flight! Oh and a saving of about half an hour by not stopping in Singas on the way 'cause it's still a slow airbus.

halas