Emirates adds daily flights to transtasman air traffic

By CHRIS DANIELS

The Dubai-based airline Emirates will begin flying to New Zealand in August.

From August 1, Emirates will fly a 380-seat Boeing 777 aircraft daily between Auckland and both Sydney and Melbourne. In late October it will start daily flights between Auckland and Brisbane.

The total of 21 flights a week will make Emirates the third biggest transtasman carrier.

Around the same time Emirates will begin flying an Airbus A340-500 aircraft between Auckland and Sydney. This plane can make the 14-hour flight between Sydney and Dubai nonstop.

Emirates will provide first, business and economy-class seats, giving business travellers another option after Air New Zealand launches its single-class "Express" service across the Tasman, probably in October.

Air NZ and Qantas' share of the Tasman routes is expected to drop from 85 per cent to 75 per cent.

Emirates is launching the service after the Australian Government last month gave it permission to increase the number of flights between Dubai and Australia.

Eddie Lim, Emirates' area manager for Australia and NZ, said he expected more New Zealanders to start flying to Europe through Dubai. The new A340 aircraft made the journey quicker, travelling west most of the way instead of going through Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong.

Lim also expected more people from the Middle East would travel to NZ and Australia during their hottest months of June, July and August.

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton welcomed the Emirates decision, saying the lack of air links was a major impediment to growing relations with the Middle East.

Trade opportunities would grow, and last year's opening of a consulate in Dubai signalled that "we had reached a new and exciting phase in our relationship with the United Arab Emirates".

Emirates describes itself as having the youngest fleet flying and one of the world's five most profitable and 20 largest international airlines.

Dubai is trying to establish itself as a trading, financial, communications and aviation hub - a Singapore of the Middle East.

In 2006 Emirates expects to be one of the first airlines to take delivery of an Airbus A380 double-decker super-jumbo and plans to more than double its fleet size from 51 aircraft over the next 10 years.