UAE carriers ramp up flights to Australia

Emirates will increase weekly flights to 70 by 2009.

Australia is set to become even more accessible to Middle East travellers with Emirates and Etihad Airways announcing increased frequencies to the popular destination.

Emirates will increase its total weekly flights from 49 to 70 by 2009, using bigger and newer planes, while Etihad will fly 11 times weekly to Australia by March and recently signed a deal with Virgin Blue allowing its customers to connect to the 22 cities across Australia that the Aussie low cost carrier serves.

However, there's no sign of Australian flag carrier Qantas taking the plunge and introducing flights to the Middle East, despite the success and increased commitment of the aforementioned carriers.

Instead, Australian government authorities seem intent on attracting more international carriers than giving opportunities to its own airline.

Just last week Queensland Tourism Minister Desley Boyle held talks with eight of Asia's biggest airlines with a view to seeking new airline opportunities to the state.

Boyle travelled to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Guangzhou and Hong Kong to also promote aviation training and engineering capabilities in Queensland as the state sets itself up as a regional aviation hub.

"One of the keys to increasing international tourism to Queensland is airline capacity," said Boyle.

"Queensland is the only state with four international airports - Cairns, Hamilton Island, the Gold Coast and Brisbane."

In 2006-07, Queensland attracted 2.2 million international holidaymakers, staying for 35.7 million nights.

The Gold Coast in Queensland is a favourite with Arab travellers who are attracted to its theme parks, apartment accommodation, Halal food, Arabic menus and other facilities geared to this market.

However, Tourism Australia is trying to encourage Arab nationals to visit other parts of Australia.

Visitor numbers from the GCC to the country are on the rise - for the eight months to August 2007, arrivals from the region increased 21% compared to the same period last year and the Tourism Forecasting Committee predicts that total Middle East arrivals will hit the 50,000 mark in 2007.

It also expects that over the next nine years, the average annual growth rate for GCC arrivals to Australia will hit 11% through to 2015.

Emirates Airline - and not Qantas - will be one of the key players driving this growth.

It plans to fly the new 489-seat Airbus A380 direct to Melbourne and Sydney and will double its Brisbane flights, adding a second daily service from October next year using new A340-500 aircraft. Bigger Boeing 777-300ER aircraft fitted with the airline's latest cabins will fly on the service via Singapore from July.

Melbourne will move from two to three daily services in February 2009, while Sydney will gain a third non-stop service later that year. The expansion uses all but 14 of the additional weekly flights allocated to Emirates for the next four years by Australia's Federal Government.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Qantas is not interested in the Middle East
Posted by Gemma Greenwood, Dubai, UAE on Monday 26 November 2007 at 12:00 UAE time


Glad to see I piqued your interest Mike. Just for the record, I have contacted Qantas on several occasions and they really don't care about the Middle East. They provide the same old comment - 'We are not interested in the Middle East". So I've given up. Basically, they've missed the boat. Shame really....

Biased Article
Posted by Mike, Dubai, United Arab Emirates on Monday 26 November 2007 at 10:00 UAE time


Given the QANTAS 'bashing' in this article I wonder if EK Corporate communications Group wrote this item ! Granted QANTAS are not flying to Dubai, perhaps you could get a quote from QF on this matter to give some balance & explore where their priorities are?

BETTER CONNECTIVITY TO AUSTRALIA
Posted by Buddhadeb Mookerjee, Dubai, UAE on Sunday 25 November 2007 at 16:00 UAE time


It is good to learn that Emirates and Etihad have plans to increase their flights to various Australian destinations. As a frequent flier to Sydney this comes as a boon to me. The joy would be so much more if the airlines reduce their fares on Australian sectors. Australian sectors have been commercially very successful for Emirates and Etihad and the airlines could spare a thought for the passengers who have made the success possible.

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