Qantas Will Replace Emirates’ Sydney – Auckland A380 Service With An A330

by Zac George
a seat in a plane

If you’re familiar with travelling to New Zealand from Australia, you’re probably aware that Emirates have some services across the pond. The airline uses these flights to make revenue instead of letting the superjumbo’s sit on the ground doing nothing. Emirates have flights from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne to Auckland as well as Sydney – Christchurch.

Passengers are able to purchase First, Business and Economy as normal. If you’d buy First, it’s a great way to get status credits for Qantas, you’re able to enjoy the Qantas First lounges in Sydney and Melbourne, get the proper amenity kit, have a shower onboard and are even able to consume as much Dom Perignon as you wish. The fares in all cabins are competitive and coupled with Emirates’ upgrade program, it’s a great way to try their Business Class at a discount.

a chair in a plane

Emirates A380 First Class

The legs over to New Zealand aren’t always full and don’t do too well in the premium cabins. In Economy, they do well but nowhere near as much as Emirates would have liked. The flights coming back to Australia have much better loads and I’ve been on quite a few full flights.

Sadly though, it looks like Emirates are no longer happy with the loads and they will be taking the A380 away from the Sydney – Auckland – Sydney flights from July 13th and instead will be replacing it with a Qantas A330-200. 

The change will also see Qantas having two daily A330 flights from Sydney to Auckland as they’ll be upgrading an existing Jetconnect 737-800 flight.

This means you’ll no longer see First Class on the Sydney – Auckland route. Qantas’s A330-200 is fitted with 28 Business Class suites and 234 Economy seats. As a comparison, Emirates’ A380 had 517 seats so there’s a reduction of 246 seats.

a seat in an airplane

Qantas A330 Business Class

Here are the schedules for the Qantas A330 flights:

QF140 will depart Auckland at 6:55 am and arrive into Sydney at 8:30 am every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

QF146 will depart Auckland at 3:20 pm and arrive into Sydney at 4:55 pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

QF143 will Sydney at 8:55 am and arrive into Auckland at 2:00 pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

QF149 will depart Sydney at 6:20 pm and arrive into Auckland at 11:25 pm every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.

Overall

I’m a little saddened that Emirates is taking away the route as I had taken that a few times and it’s a lot of fun, especially with the Qantas First Class Lounge Sydney But At least the airline will continue to do the flights from Melbourne and Brisbane.

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5 comments

Edward Henry June 1, 2017 - 6:12 am

I´ve already bought a ticket in First Class. Can I ask them to fly to SYD via DXB ? It would be a sense of justice, because I´ve had bought ticket by EK only for the experience of flying on the A380, using shower spa. etc..

Tom June 1, 2017 - 6:07 pm

Same situation here (except for the first class ticket). I chose to fly with Qantas because it would have been my first time on an A380 through the syd-akl flight and was really excited to try it. Anyway, I think maybe you can fly to SYD via BNE

Zac George June 1, 2017 - 6:09 pm

Tom and Edward – You’ll need to contact Qantas and see what they say. I’d imagine they’ll tell you to either re-route via BNE or MEL or will give a full refund.

Mark June 4, 2017 - 6:08 pm

As the Syd-Auckland-Syd sector has been cancelled, is it known whether EK419 will depart Sydney earlier in the day?

JSU July 21, 2017 - 6:31 pm

Emirates first class on A380 is rubbish. Flew three times with them MEL-SIN, SIN-MEL, and MEL-AKL in this cabin and all I got were really crappy crew service and lousy foods. The drinks were all expensive stuff but that’s about it. Shower you get only 5 minutes of water. Please note the seats are narrow by first class standard.

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