Emirates‘ Sydney 10th anniversary celebrations this weekend will coincide with news that its flights between the NSW capital and Dubai have now topped more than two million passengers.
Emirates’ A380 landing at Sydney Airport
Emirates’ inaugural service to Sydney on March 27, 2000 was the first-ever flight between Sydney and the airline’s hub of Dubai. The service paved the way for further trade growth between Australia and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, and positioned Dubai as a viable hub for travel.
Emirates first commenced services to Australia via Melbourne in 1996.
In the first year of operations approximately 65,000 passengers travelled the Sydney to Dubai route. In the year ended June 2009 this figure surpassed 330,000, with many using the route for onward journeys to Emirates’ 101 destinations worldwide.
As a forward economic indicator for trade – Emirates cargo carriage between Sydney and Dubai grew by over 30 per cent year on year in 2009.
The most popular destinations for passengers travelling from Sydney are currently Dubai, Beirut, Athens, Rome, London and Auckland. The largest source markets for visitors to Sydney on Emirates are the United Arab Emirates, Italy, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.
This impressive passenger growth has been enabled by Emirates’ growth in capacity to Sydney, increasing from one service per day to thrice-daily services in early 2010. This includes two direct services, one of which is operated by the state-of-the art Airbus A380 aircraft.
Emirates’ NSW/ACT Sales Manager, Tim Harrowell, said: “From a standing start both Sydney, and the Australian market as a whole, have grown into one of Emirates’ most important and successful markets worldwide. Australians have realised the benefits of Emirates’ efficient connections to destinations in the Middle East, Africa and Europe, as well as the airline’s commitment to best in class services.
“We continue to measure the success of our Sydney services not just in passenger figures but also in how we have helped grow the market, and the investment we have made in New South Wales as a whole. Since 1991 traffic from the MENA region to Australia has increased more than nine-fold, compared with a less than two-fold increase for traffic of all foreign residents to Australia.
“We are proud to have successfully cemented Emirates’ place as one of Australia’s leading long haul carriers, as well as grow the profile of Dubai as a hub for travel to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.
“With the launch of four key destinations for Australia this year, Senegal, Amsterdam, Madrid and Prague, we expect our inbound and outbound passenger figures to grow further,” he said.
It should be popular time for the Africa routes with just over 75 days to go until the most talked about sporting event of the year; Emirates as an Official Partner of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is offering a number of tailor-made travel packages that include flights, accommodation, ground transportation and match tickets to meet the demands of all Australian soccer fans.
With five daily flights from Dubai into three gateways into South Africa; Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban, there is no excuse to miss any of the action.
Other activities organised for Emirates’ 10th anniversary celebrations include an inflight surprise performance from sponsorship partner, the Sydney Symphony on the A380- across to Auckland, as well as a Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb for long standing and dedicated Emirates staff.
Australia-wide, Emirates has 70 flights per week between Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Dubai, including a thrice-daily service from Sydney. Emirates also has 28 flights per week trans-Tasman including the Sydney to Auckland route which is serviced by the Airbus A380.
The Airbus A380 superjumbo offers all the luxuries that you have come to expect from Emirates – from chauffeur driven transfers, priority check-in and world-class lounges for our Business and First Class customers to a gourmet food and wine experience once on board, plus over 1,100 channels of entertainment.
