Emirates today announced that its services to Australia would grow to 70 a week to cater to the increasing demand from around the airline’s network.

Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney will all receive additional flights, new aircraft and capacity involving the newest and most luxurious aircraft in the sky.

The services will increase from the current 49 flights a week to 56 flights a week during 2008; and they will grow to 70 flights a week during 2009, said Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive, Emirates Airline and Group.

The airline will fly twice daily to Brisbane in 2008; three times daily to Melbourne and Sydney from 2009; and launch Airbus A380 direct services from Dubai to Sydney and Melbourne in 2009, he said.

Sheikh Ahmed told a press conference in Sydney that Emirates welcomed over six million passengers on their Australian flights since its first service to Melbourne in 1996 and today’s announcement represents a strong commitment to build on that growth.

“The Emirates - Australian partnership has been a tourism and trade success story. Emirates has been fortunate to have received bi-partisan support at both a Federal and state level over many years.

 “We are committing the latest technology to our Australian routes – the aircraft will be more efficient to operate and better for the environment. At the same time, these aircraft will enable Emirates to continue setting the gold standard in service.”

 The second daily service to Brisbane will be introduced in October 2008 using the state-of-the-art Airbus A340-500 and the third daily service to Melbourne will commence in February 2009. Sydney will go to a triple daily service in late 2009. These three additional flights will all be non-stop from Dubai.

Emirates’ Airbus A380 services to Australia will commence in the first quarter of 2009 with a direct service to Sydney. The A380 service to Melbourne will come online as more aircraft are delivered from Airbus. Australia will be among the first countries to be served by Emirates’ A380s.

From July 2008, Emirates’ existing daily service to Brisbane via Singapore will be served by the new Boeing 777-300ERs, which offers passengers industry-leading levels of comfort and service in all three cabins. -TradeArabia News Service