Emirates EK448 - FR24
 

Do my eyes deceive me or is EK448 back tracking?

I have a friend currently en-route to Oz and have been monitoring his progress. The daily A380 pulse left Dubai and headed off to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, and Auckland. However it would seem that the Auckland flight has turned around mid Indian Ocaen, roughly just short of the Cocos Islands, and is now heading for Sri Lanka.

Has anyone any info?

Thanks in advance
Akro

https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/...ate=2023-01-27

bad weather in Auckland

Flood water in the terminal building...

It seems the weather is "biblical" with the airport area taking quite a whack.

If I was pax on EK448 I'd be pretty dis-chuffed at turning round six hours into an 18 hour flight and back tracking to Dubai only to set off again. Why not follow the other A380's down to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and sit it out there?

Assuming those airports have the capacity for an A380 to sit it out for as long as it takes

Then there's crew hours etc

Oh I don't know. For those travelling upper deck then they'd have got a 13 hour leg in premium class, a paid for hotel room back in Dubai again and then another flight this time free back to AKL. Admittedly it wouldn't be so much fun for those in economy and likely it's also probably ruined lots of peoples plans but you gotta look on the the bright side!

Also the reason they returned to Dubai as opposed to dropping into Oz is EK would not have known how long the airport was to be closed for and then you have to consider trying to find hotel accommodation for hundreds of people and crew. Prob best to return to base where that can be more easily taken care of. For sure they take a hit on fuel etc but it's not like its a regular occurrence, these things do happen.....