Emirates is launching a direct flight to Auckland, New Zealand from Dubai operated with a Boeing 777-200LR.
The new service will be in addition to the Gulf carrier’s existing flights, which means Emirates will have five daily services into New Zealand – Three flights to Auckland via Australia and a daily Christchurch route.
The flight time will be around 16 hours from Dubai and 17 hours 15 minutes on the return leg.
“Operating a non-stop service between Dubai and Auckland has been in our sights for some time, dependent on availability of suitable aircraft as we rapidly expand our global network of destinations, and frequency of flights and capacity on existing routes,” said Emirates chairman and CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
“Auckland as the major gateway is now a thriving and attractive city of 1.5 million and, together with tourism and business traffic, we are sure that it will easily sustain the introduction of the extra flight,” he added.
With the introduction of the non-stop service, Emirates will be flying more than 2,000 seats a day in each direction on New Zealand services.
Travellers currently booked on existing services to Dubai and beyond will be able to switch to the new service without additional fees (subject to seat availability).
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