Emirates Australia network at "optimal point"

Emirates Australia network at "optimal point"
By admin


Emirates is unlikely to expand its Australian footprint after acknowledging that 14 daily flights from Dubai is sufficient to satisfy demand – at least for now.

The carrier operates 84 weekly services to five Australian ports – Adelaide became its latest destination last November – a number which Emirates president Tim Clark described as “optimal at this point”.

With Qantas operating 14 weekly services, the alliance will offer just shy of 100 services each week between Australia and Dubai.

In addition, Clark said Emirates would operate a second daily A380 flight to Sydney from June 1, further increasing capacity.

“We have just opened Adelaide, have a third [flight] into Perth and have a second A380 into Sydney,” Clark said. “We operate 84 services a week now which is pretty significant. With Adelaide as our fifth point I think we’re at a level where the number of points we are serving is probably optimal at this point in time.”

But he added it was still early days for the alliance and left the door open for future expansion should the need arise.

If there is “enormous demand”, Qantas and Emirates would discuss where the growth is coming from and determine how best to serve that demand, he said.

Clark repeated his description of the tie-up as “seismic”, arguing that the aviation world had not “contemplated a partnership of this scale”.

“Neither did they believe an airline like Emirates, traditionally opposed to joining major alliances, constructing a partnership on this basis would ever happen,” he said. “But it was the smart thing to do, and it is the smart thing to do.”

It is a “game changing partnership”, he added.

Customers of both airlines are at the heart of the alliance, Clark continued, with every decision “made, taken and considered” based on providing “added extras” for passengers.

The coming together of the two carriers “provides one of the most formidable aviation networks in the world today”, he said.

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