Emirates is making a 560-tonne statement in New Zealand - travel’s getting back to normal

Almost 1000 days since it was last in New Zealand, an Emirates Airbus A380 is heading back to Auckland early next month.

With the power of 2500 family cars and weighing in at 560 tonnes, the airline says the plane is a big statement that air travel is getting back to normal.

“It’s a really important step for us to get the aeroplane back here,” said New Zealand manager Chris Lethbridge. “Our goal is to normalise travel again and it sends a really strong message to the market.”

The airline, which will next year celebrate 20 years of flying to this country, will resume non-stop flights between Dubai and Auckland from December 2, and next March resume flights between Dubai and Christchurch, via Sydney. The daily flights will both use the A380, Emirates’ flagship aircraft.

Lethbridge said the plane is enormously popular with passengers, and from mid-January next year, A380s on the Auckland route will be fitted with the airline’s new premium economy cabin, now being retrofitted throughout much of the fleet as part of US$2 billion ($3.43b) project.

The last Emirates A380 flew out of New Zealand on March 26, 2020 and will return 982 days later.

That was not the last A380 here: Lufthansa A380s made an appearance in April 2020 with one-off repatriation flights to Germany.

Lethbridge said that but for a brief pause, Emirates had maintained operations in New Zealand. First with cargo and repatriation flights carrying tens of thousands of passengers and then with regular services through Kuala Lumpur using a smaller Boeing 777ER.

Emirates is introducing Premium Economy on Airbus A380 aircraft. Photo / Supplied

As part of the return to normality, the airline’s Auckland lounge had now reopened.

Emirates has been operating the A380 since 2008 and has been overwhelmingly Airbus’ biggest customer for the plane, which is no longer in production.

Auckland once had more Emirates A380s on the ground during the day than any place other than Dubai (helped by having lower parking charges than in Australia) and Lethbridge was hopeful of rebuilding capacity.

“That’s the plan. But at the moment we’re constricted at the moment really.”

The airline was by far the biggest customer for Airbus’ A380s and had 120 planes in its fleet, of which about 70 are back flying. Emirates wants the entire fleet back in the air by the middle of next year.

Emirates airline New Zealand manager Chris Lethbridge. Photo / Supplied

Many will come back fully upgraded as part of the multibillion-dollar refit (which includes Boeing 777s) now under way in Dubai.

The target is to completely retrofit four Emirates aircraft from start to finish every month, continuously for more than two years.

Once the 67 earmarked A380s are refreshed and back in service, 53 777s will undergo their facelift. This will see nearly 4000 brand new premium economy seats installed, 728 first class suites refurbished and over 5000 business class seats upgraded to a new style and design when the project is complete in April 2025.

In addition, carpets and stairs will be upgraded and cabin interior panels refreshed with new tones and design motifs including the drought-tolerant ghaf trees which are native to the United Arab Emirates.

As part of the programme, new purpose-built workshops will be set up at Emirates Engineering to repaint, re-trim and re-upholster business and economy class seats with new covers and cushioning. First class suites will be carefully disassembled and sent to a specialised company to replace the leather, arm rests and other materials.

Emirates’ new 56-seat premium economy cabin at the front of the bottom deck offers luxurious seats and more legroom, and is currently available to Emirates customers travelling on popular A380 routes to London, Paris and Sydney.

The airline has been among the last of the major carriers to fit premium economy.

Emirates' A380s have a shower suite for First Class passengers Photo/Getty

Lethbridge says that since going on sale there’d been strong demand for the new cabin. Seats for the European summer were on sale for around $4400 return. In economy they’re around $2800 and about $10,000 in business class.

“There are some good deals there but you’ve got to plan and book early.”

Booking windows had become much shorter, which was why some passengers were facing higher prices. But there had been underlying increases due to the impact of higher fuel costs and general inflation being passed on in a time of elevated demand. The very low sale fares had yet to return.

“We all want the market to normalise. We all want to see tactical activity, we all want to see the things, the drivers that drive in a normal environment. It’s a supply-demand issue at the moment - there’s simply not enough supply to meet the demand.”

Throughout the A380, which Lethbridge describes as a bucket list experience, passengers were upgrading. Some were treating themselves to upgrades, using savings made by doing little travel for more than two years, while others wanted more personal space for health reasons, said Lethbridge.

Fears of business travel being slow to recover were largely unfounded.

“People need to get out to the world and peddle their wares. That’s been a really good indicator that the market is recovering.”

He said Kiwis were booking in big numbers for the Rugby World Cup in France next year, many combining it with extended holidays away from the games. There were growing recession fears in the big inbound markets of Britain and Europe, but like others in the travel industry Emirates wasn’t seeing that impacting bookings as customers were still putting aside spending for holidays.

The Christchurch-Sydney flight offers another option on the capacity-constrained Tasman market.

“The Tasman is great during the softer European months to fill planes. But the key the focus for all of our flights really is is that Dubai and beyond,” said Lethbridge.