(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Emirates and Qantas on Wednesday enhanced their joint network as bookings opened for their new schedule between New Zealand and Australia.
Among a suite of enhancements aimed at providing more convenience and better connections for travellers to and from New Zealand, Qantas has retimed its existing Christchurch-Sydney service enabling more international connections from Sydney and will launch a new Perth-Auckland service.
Emirates will continue to operate 28 flights a week to New Zealand, with daily flights to Auckland from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and the daily flight between Sydney and Christchurch.
From October 1, all Emirates flights to Auckland will be operated by an Airbus A380. Qantas operates double-daily A380 services from Dubai to Australia with connections to over 100 flights per week to New Zealand.
Tim Clark, president of Emirates, said the codesharing, aligned fares and frequent-flyer benefits would all add value for the customers of both Emirates and Qantas.
"These are the first significant signs of the Qantas-Emirates partnership at work across the Tasman and the advantages for our customers will continue to increase as the relationship grows," said Clark.
"We can expect to see benefits for the tourism industry as well, and that has got to be good news all round."
Sweden to benefit from Emirates route
DUBAI - With the launch of Emirates' services to Stockholm less than a month away, Sweden is expected to receive an economic boost thanks to the airline's extensive global network.
"As well as attracting new trade and investment into Sweden, Emirates will play an important role in supporting the country's $2.5 billion tourism industry, introducing new audiences to Stockholm and drawing in visitors from a host of points across the globe, including China, Japan, Australia, Korea and numerous points in the Middle East," said Hubert Frach, Emirates airlines' divisional senior vice-president for Commercial Operations West.
Sweden is the most-visited country among the Nordic nations, with five million international travellers in 2011, projected to grow to 5.4 million by 2016.
- business@khaleejtimes.com
"Through the partnership, the Emirates network has now been opened up to include Queenstown and Wellington in New Zealand in addition to the 55 destinations in Australia already on offer to our customers."
Qantas group chief executive officer Alan Joyce said the new Qantas schedule is one of many benefits to flow from the Qantas and Emirates partnership in New Zealand. "Our new Auckland-Perth service will cater for demand over the busy holiday season and our new trans-Tasman schedule offers better flight times and more connections to flights both in Australia and around the world," said Joyce.
"The new Qantas and Emirates schedule offers around 130 services per week from Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington and Queenstown across the Tasman to a joint network covering more than 175 destinations in Australia, Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, the United Kingdom and Europe," he added.
Emirates' trans-Tasman services are operated by Airbus A380 and Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, while Qantas' services are operated by a dedicated fleet of next-generation Boeing 737-800s.
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