Emirates axes Auckland-Sydney superjumbo flight

Emirates is pulling an A380 aircraft from the Auckland-Sydney route. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Emirates is ditching its daily A380 superjumbo flight between Auckland and Sydney as part of a revamp of services on the highly competitive Tasman route with its partner airline, Qantas.

The Australian airline will introduce twice-daily smaller Airbus A330 flights on the route from July 13, which will result in a loss of capacity.

Emirates - which last year added a direct service to Dubai from Auckland - said the airline needed to "optimise" capacity.

"The Tasman is a dynamic market and we saw the need to optimise capacity on this route in line with changes in demand," said Emirates' divisional vice-president for Australasia, Barry Brown.

Qantas will upgrade four daily Sydney-Auckland services from Boeing 737s to Airbus A330s which include a 28-seat business cabin and 243 in economy.

The Australian airline says that with the new A330 service, there would be a higher overall frequency of Qantas flights on the route, which it says would suit the transtasman business market.

"The revised schedule will make sure the airlines have the right amount of capacity in the market to meet customer needs."

Qantas International chief executive Gareth Evans said one of the advantages of the Qantas-Emirates partnership was flexibility with combined fleets.

"These schedule changes also mean customers travelling to and from New Zealand have more convenient options to connect with the broader Qantas and Emirates network, especially into Asia.