Emirates has announced plans to delink its current Dubai-Kuala Lumpur-Auckland route and serve both cities individually.
The Gulf carrier currently offers a linked B777-300ER service from Dubai to both Kuala Lumpur and onwards to Auckland, but from December 1 it will resume nonstop flights to Auckland, and will serve both cities with the carrier’s A380 superjumbo.
The move means Dubai-Auckland will once again become Emirates’ longest nonstop route at some 14,200km.
The new schedules from December will be as follows:
Dubai-Auckland
- EK448 departing Dubai at 1005, arriving into Auckland at 1105 the following day
- EK449 departing Auckland at 2115, arriving into Dubai at 0525 the following day
Dubai-Kuala Lumpur
- EK346 departing Dubai at 0330, arriving into Kuala Lumpur at 1435
- EK343 departing Kuala Lumpur at 0145, arriving into Dubai at 0505
Emirates said that the revised services would “provide more opportunities to travel across the Emirates network with reduced transit times after the delinking of services, and faster connections to and from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia as well as Africa”.
The carrier also said that it was “accelerating the deployment of its flagship A380 aircraft in line with growing global demand for air travel, with 32 destinations currently being served on a scheduled basis, and more to be announced in the coming weeks and months”.
This week Emirates confirmed plans to add a third daily A380 service between Dubai and Manchester from October 30.
The Dubai-Auckland announcement follows news that Qantas is to offer nonstop flights between Auckland and New York from June 2023, joining Air New Zealand which is entering the route next month.
