Credit: Emirates
After a lengthy hiatus during Covid both Emirates and Qatar Airways have announced within days of each other capacity upgrades to their Perth service with the resumption of the Airbus A380 super jumbo. The service upgrades will add significant extra daily capacity on services between Perth and Dubai and Perth and Doha which have taken a hit during recent years due to border closures and slowdown in travel demand which in recent months has stunningly reversed.
For Emirates its single daily services between Perth and Dubai will largely remain the same with EK420 scheduled to depart Dubai at 2.45am and arrive in Perth at 5.20pm the same day while EK421 will depart from Perth at 10.20pm and arrive in Dubai at 5.25am the following morning. Emirates daily A380 service will now replace the current Boeing 777-300ER in operation between the two cities. The move by Emirates to restart the service from November 1 comes a month earlier than scheduled and will add 160 seats to its daily operations to more than 500 seats each way.
For Qatar Airways the announcement of the return of its Super Jumbos to Perth a mere day after Emirates annoucement to reccomence their A380 services a month early hardly seems like a coincidence. Qatar’s uptake of its A380 fleet once understood to be set for retirement however seems more surprising and in part is believed to be due to the carrier needing to ground nearly half of its 53 Airbus A350 fleet over ‘fuselage degradation’ issues. The upgraded Superjumbo flights will replace the Boeing 777 that had been operating the route since the onset of Covid with QR 900 departing Doha’s Hamad International Airport at 3.20am for the 11 hour journey to Perth arriving at 7.20pm. QR 901 outbound from Perth Airport will depart At 10.50pm for the 11.5 hours journey to Doha arriving before dawn at 5.20am.
