Emirates A380s Return to Christchurch & Auckland in December 2022

Emirates has committed to resuming Airbus A380 flights from Christchurch to Dubai via Sydney from 1 December 2022. From the same date, Emirates will also resume direct Auckland-Dubai A380 flights.

The Auckland-Dubai and Christchurch-Sydney-Dubai routes were both operated daily by Emirates before the pandemic. But for the past couple of years, Emirates has not flown to Christchurch. Meanwhile, Emirates’ Auckland-Dubai services are currently running as one-stop services using smaller Boeing 777-300ERs.

Emirates’ Sydney-Christchurch tag flight to resume from 1 December 2022

From 1 December 2022, Emirates will restore services to Christchurch for the first time in almost three years. It will also be possible to just book a seat on the fifth-freedom sector between Sydney and Christchurch, bringing back one of the most popular ways to fly across the Tasman.

Emirates’ Christchurch schedule from 1 December 2022 will be as follows:

• EK413 Christchurch 18:45 – Sydney 20:05 / Sydney 21:45 – Dubai 05:15 (next day)
• EK412 Dubai 10:15 – Sydney 07:00 (next day) / Sydney 08:45 – Christchurch 14:00

Emirates will use Airbus A380s with new Premium Economy seats for its Christchurch-Sydney-Dubai services. Economy, Business and First Class seating will also be available.

Emirates will begin offering Premium Economy on its two existing daily Sydney-Dubai A380 flights from 1 August 2022, with Premium Economy seats being offered for sale from 1 June 2022.

Emirates will continue to offer twice-daily Sydney-Dubai flights from December. The Sydney-Christchurch leg will simply be an extension of an existing Dubai-Sydney service.

Qatar Airways is also now offering trans-Tasman tag flights with 3x weekly Adelaide-Auckland services.

Direct Dubai-Auckland flights restored

Throughout the pandemic, Emirates has been operating one-stop Boeing 777-300ER flights from Auckland to Dubai via Kuala Lumpur.

The extra stop made this route more commercially viable for Emirates while New Zealand’s tough border restrictions were in place, but it also added several hours to the journey time for Aucklanders travelling to Dubai. Passengers travelling with Emirates from Auckland to Dubai are also not allowed to leave the aircraft during the transit stop in Kuala Lumpur.

But from 1 December, Emirates will restore its direct Auckland-Dubai flights. It will also upgrade the route back to an Airbus A380 service.

This will be the new schedule from 1 December 2022:

• EK449 Auckland 21:15 – Dubai 05:25 (next day)
• EK448 Dubai 10:05 – Auckland 11:05 (next day)

Emirates won’t initially offer Premium Economy on its Auckland-Dubai flights, but this will eventually be available as Emirates reconfigures more aircraft with the new cabin.

Aucklanders can still look forward to the Emirates on-board bar again when travelling to Dubai, which is available to Business and First Class passengers on the A380. Emirates’ Airbus A380 also has two showers which First Class passengers can use.

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 70 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.