New Airbus A380 flight on Auckland, New Zealand – Dubai route from Emirates

Emirates Airline, based in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has started service with Airbus A380 Superjumbo, the world’s largest passenger airliner, to New Zealand.

With this flight, which started on February 2, 2009, Emirates became the first airline to operate the A380 aircraft on a scheduled commercial basis to Auckland, New Zealand, and also the first to offer A380 services all the way between New Zealand and London, a statement from the airline said.

Sydney in Australia and Auckland thus became the third and fourth destinations, respectively, to join Emirates Airline’s expanding network of A380 Superjumbo services.

The inaugural flight of Emirates’ A380 aircraft, Flight EK 412, took off from Emirates Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport, first arrived in Sydney in Australia, and then flew onwards to Auckland in New Zealand. There were over 400 passengers on board – passengers from the United Kingdom, Germany, Malta, the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iran and a few other countries.

Emirates Airline, the statement said, would operate its A380 aircraft – which the airline has described as “a premium hotel in the sky” – from Dubai to Sydney and across the Tasman, flying into and out of Auckland every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The service will be upgraded to daily flight from May 1, 2009.

Emirates said all steps were being taken to reduce fuel burn and emissions on flights to and from Australia and New Zealand and also to cut journey time.

Richard Vaughan, Emirates Airline’s senior vice-president (commercial operations, East Asia and Australasia) explained in the statement that the Flight EK 412 – the first commercial flight of an A380 Superjumbo over the Indian Ocean – was also the test flight for a “longer-term green flight initiative involving the air navigation service providers of Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives working with Emirates and other airlines to pioneer best environmental practice over the world’s third-largest oceanic region.” The “green flight” programme will officially start in the first half of 2009.

The new service, Richard Vaughan added, would also be advantageous to Australians and New Zealanders travelling to their “preferred cities in Europe and the Middle East, and will facilitate a seamless A380 experience from Auckland/Sydney to Dubai and onwards to London Heathrow – an important route for travellers from both countries.”

Meanwhile, according to a forecast by the Tourism Australia Aviation, notwithstanding the downturn in the global economic scenario, visitors from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) visiting Australia are expected to grow by 8% in 2009 and by 15% in 2010. Besides, in its latest annual study, Tourism New South Wales recorded about 30,000 overnight visitors from the Middle East and North Africa region – representing 43.3% of New South Wales’ total visitors and a 32.9% rise over a year before.

Emirates said it was already flying over 50% of all tourists from the Persian Gulf region visiting Australia. The airline’s network in the Middle East and North Africa make up 194 flights a week to 16 key gateways.

It may be noted that New Zealand, in its effort to facilitate air travel, has signed a visa-waiver agreement with the six member-states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

According to Emirates Airline, the Flight EK 412 using the Airbus A380 adopted the following steps to maximise environmental efficiency:

• Priority departure from Dubai and an unrestricted climb from the UAE Air Traffic Control to ensure optimal fuel burn.
• Flexible, ultra-efficient routings over countries and their air space such as Oman, the Maldives and India.
  Dynamic re-routing to allow for weather changes, particularly high-altitude winds, to save journey time and emissions.
• Arrangement with AirServices Australia to allow a continuous descent arrival to ensure fuel is saved and noise is minimised.
• Arrangement with Airways Corporation of New Zealand for the continuation of the green initiatives on EK412 between Sydney and Auckland.
• Use of routes to further reduce fuel and emissions over the Tasman.