Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum

Emirates’ chairman, HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum recently announced that the airline will commence services between Dubai and Auckland, New Zealand on August 1. Emirates’ daily flights to Sydney and Melbourne will be extended on to Auckland providing a total of 14 flights weekly in each direction. The daily flights to Brisbane, scheduled to start October 26, will also be extended to Auckland, increasing Emirates’ services across the Tasman Sea to 21 weekly flights. The airline has full traffic rights between Auckland and all three Australian gateways.

Sheikh Ahmed revealed that, “The UAE and New Zealand have enjoyed an air services agreement for some years. These new services follow the recent agreement on traffic rights between the government of Australia and the UAE, which allows Emirates to operate with full traffic rights from all points in Australia. Our flights offer Australian and New Zealand passengers a greater choice of carriers across the Tasman Sea. The opportunity affords us to extend trade and leisure travel opportunities in this increasingly region of the world. When Emirates introduces non-stop flights to Sydney on October 26, we will offer an unrivalled one-stop service between Dubai and New Zealand.”

The new services will delight the New Zealand community in the UAE, increase trade between the two countries and open up a stunningly beautiful and extremely safe destination for leisure travellers from the Middle-East. They will also offer passengers to Auckland a choice of departure times from Dubai, varying with the three different gateways used. The flights will be operated with a Boeing 777-300 aircraft in three-class configuration offering 18 first, 42 business and 320 economy seat plus cargo capacity of 17-20 tonnes.