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Wirraway
9th Jan 2003, 01:54
Bloomberg

Emirates Seeks Permission to Double Sydney, Melbourne Flights
By Margreet Dietz

Melbourne, Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Emirates, the largest Arab airline, is seeking approval from the Australian government to double its flights from Dubai to Sydney and Melbourne.

Emirates has daily services between Melbourne and Dubai and will start daily flights between Sydney and Dubai in March. It wants to add an extra daily flight on each route, Eddie Lim, the airline's Australia and New Zealand manager, said in an interview.

"We are asking for double-dailies from Melbourne and Sydney,'' Lim said. "We hope to have talks with the government shortly,'' he said, without being more specific.

The carrier, which also operates four flights a week between Perth and Dubai, is optimistic about traffic between the United Arab Emirates and Australia this year, Lim said. "That is the reason why we still continue with our intended expansion plans into Australia,'' he said.

Emirates has no plan to start domestic flights in Australia, he said. Speculation has been rife that an international carrier such as Emirates or Singapore Airlines Ltd. may set up an Australian unit to challenge Qantas Airways Ltd., which has grabbed nearly 80 percent of the market after the collapse of Ansett Airlines in September 2001.

"We will never start domestic operations here,'' Lim said. "We would rather have more international flights into Australia than get involved in a domestic operation.

B772
9th Jan 2003, 04:32
Emirates want double daily services to ML and SY so they can be replaced with a single A380 service when the A380 is introduced in 3 years time.

ferris
9th Jan 2003, 05:43
They want double dailies because the flights are chockers.

cyclops camel
9th Jan 2003, 11:23
Rumour here is that the second daily services will be launched when the A340-500's arrive toward the end of this year.

This new 'bus has the range to fly non-stop from Dubai to anywhere in Oz. Bypassing Singapore will offer the Oz travelling public one stop service to Europe, thus putting EK on a similar playing field to QF, BA, SQ etc. The difference is that EK hub from Dubai to 15 European, 7 African and 12 Middle-Eastern destinations, as opposed to 2 or 3 for the Oz/Asia based carriers.

And B772, by the time the A380 rolls in 2006, EK will be busy enough to fill two a day, not just replace the double daily service!

Fluke
9th Jan 2003, 13:33
More likely they are just testing the water with what to do with all their excess capacity if Emirates States side ambition falls through or is delayed.