No secret or doubt about it, Australia is one of the most strategic and key markets for Emirates. Arguably second only to the UK which is the airline’s prime market with London representing the number one served destination by number of flights and available seats. Australians are very accustomed to traveling by plane and travel often making them a fantastic customer. Therefore it was hard to think that Emirates pulling out of the Singapore to Melbourne route wouldn’t bring to the service being replaced somehow. Well, that’s what happened and here’s how it’s going to pan out.
Emirates Replacing Dubai to Melbourne via Singapore Flights with Non-Stop Direct Service
It was early September 2024 when, a bit out of the blue, Emirates leaked that it would be no longer serving Melbourne with flights from Dubai via Singapore. The logic behind that is that there is a rapidly increasing competition level on that specific route with Turkish Airlines also entering the space, and the Dubai-based airline is not looking to go into a price war.
It was a little surprising thought that there was no immediate or rapid announcement of a replacement service. It was totally unthinkable that Emirates would just give up or leave idle one of those super-precious Australian airport slots.
Well, now we have our answer. The airline is, as predictable, not giving up any slot and is replacing the Dubai-Singapore-Melbourne service with a new direct and non-stop service from Dubai to Melbourne.
The flight, numbered EK404, will be a daily flight exactly as the one it is replacing, with a Dubai transit optimized schedule. The first service will take off on March 30th 2025 with the following schedule:
| Flight | From | To | Departs | Arrives | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | EK404 | Dubai (DXB) | Melbourne (MEL) | 21:15 | 17:40+1 |
| EK405 | Melbourne (MEL) | Dubai (DXB) | 23:55 | 07:00 |
What I mean by transit-optimized is that the arrival and departure times in Dubai are just before and after the European flight waves. Therefore, transit times are short and convenient, in perfect Emirates style.
New Service With The Airline’s Brand New Cabins on Retrofitted Boeing 777
The airline is not only updating its route network with the third Dubai to Melbourne route with flight EK404, but it is also upgrading the aircraft serving the destination. Starting March 30th 2025 Emirates will be introducing on Dubai to Melbourne flights it most modern aircraft interiors, with the new Business and Premium Economy class cabins.
The Boeing 777-300ER serving the route will be among those which have undergone the new cabin interior retrofitting. More and more 777s and A380s are returning to service with these new interiors ready to serve the airline for many years to come. The configuration of this particular aircraft type is:
- 8 First Class Suites
- 40 Business Class Seats
- 24 Premium Economy Seats
- 256 Economy Class Seats
I am not a huge fan of the new Emirates business class seats it is fitting on its retrofitted Boeing 777s and its new A350s but you can read more about that in this other article.