Emirates to axe Melbourne-Singapore flights on March 30
The daily 777 service was popular with many travellers, but not popular enough…
By David Flynn, December 9 2024
Emirates is ending its long-running flights between Melbourne and Singapore, leaving Australians with one less option on the eight-hour trek to and from the Merlion City.
The Gulf carrier and Qantas partner has confirmed to Executive Traveller that the route will end on Sunday March 30, 2025.
“Affected customers holding bookings on Emirates’ Singapore-Melbourne route will be offered alternative travel arrangements or a full refund.”
With an intermediate stop between Dubai and Melbourne, the flight gave Emirates the ability to carry passengers on both the Dubai-Singapore and Singapore-Melbourne legs.
While the 3am departure of EK405 from Melbourne certainly did it no favours – especially if passengers were ending their journey at Singapore – the 10am departure of the Melbourne-bound flight EK404 from Singapore made for a civilised daytime flight.
Arguably the best way to burn off 100,000 Qantas frequent flyer points...
That Singapore-Melbourne leg proved exceptionally popular with savvy Qantas frequent flyers.
They could parlay just over 100,000 Qantas Points (plus a low $88 cash surcharge) into an indulgent eight-hour sojourn in one of Emirates’ private first class suites with exceptional meals and drinks, including a near-endless stream of Champagne and caviar.
Emirates' A380 features a pair of first class shower suites.
At one stage EK404/EK405 featured Emirates’ A380 superjumbo, which added private shower suites in first class plus a buzzy inflight cocktail bar for business class passengers.
These EK404/EK405 flights will be converted to a third daily non-stop service connecting Melbourne and Dubai, on a four-class Boeing 777:
- EK404 will depart Dubai at 9.15pm, arriving in Melbourne at 5.40pm the following day
- EK405 will depart Melbourne at 11.55pm, reaching Dubai at 7am the next day
Those 777 flights will include Emirates’ latest business class.
In shuttering the route, Emirates noted the Singapore-Melbourne corridor now sees as many as ten flights per day shared between Singapore Airlines, Qantas, Scoot, Jetstar and even Turkish Airlines (which has a Singapore stopover on flights between Melbourne and Istanbul).
Also read: How to get an Emirates status match
30 Apr 2013
Total posts 12
So sad. I thankfully will enjoy this flight at the end of the month
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
26 Nov 2012
Total posts 127
How lucky am I. Booked an F reward for 29/03 the day before this announcement was made and have been waiting (read in, “sweating on”) for the end date ever since. I am saving space for the champers and caviar already.
16 Aug 2022
Total posts 3
Haha, same here, albeit Mar 7.
Enjoy!
20 Nov 2015
Total posts 483
Dammit, I was really hoping this flight would be around for a bit longer because I was looking for an F redemption on SIN-MEL in April or May!
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Oct 2016
Total posts 117
When will EK get it into their heads they need an afternoon departure from MEL to connect to LHR and EU flights that arrive early am in those places...
01 Oct 2021
Total posts 23
They can’t run an afternoon departure since they intend to use the 777 on EK404/405. Why? The 777 will arrive into Melbourne in the early evening, meaning if it were to leave Melbourne in the afternoon, it would be idle for nearly 24 hours.
The only option is for them to go all A380 to Melbourne similar to Sydney. EK406 A380 service arrives into Melbourne at 6am and doesn’t leave Melbourne until 10pm as EK407.
Rather what Emirates could do is switch the A380s. So EK406 (morning arrival) becomes EK405 (afternoon departure), then EK404 (early evening arrival) becomes EK407 (late night departure). This will allow for the A380s to be idle for less time.
01 Jun 2017
Total posts 18
Agree the only way to prevent aircrafts sitting idle too long. DXB SYD pre Covid at one point did this. DXB - SYD 2130 - 1720 and SYD - DXB 1600 - 0000. Hopefully this is temporary once there is enough load EK is prepared to dart between DXB and MEL using all A380s then the 1600 - 0000 hours flight is achievable. This timing is suitable for early morning arrival into Europe which QF1 used to do via DXB. The flights for DXB SYD would not be achievable because the early morning arrival into SYD continues on to CHC. Unless EK prepares to axe CHC then it becomes very clean as such:
DXB - MEL or SYD 1000 - 0630; 0230 - 2230; 2115 - 1730
SYD or MEL - DXB 1600 - 0000; 0600 - 1300; 2130 - 0530
For EK to do another morning arrival into DXB (i.e. MEL - DXB 2355 - 0700), it means better connections for those European, African or Middle Eastern flights that depart later in the morning like 0900 or 0930. Having said that, if a business traveller with shower facilities on an A380 would definitely still opt for the MEL - DXB 2130 - 0530 even though longer wait time for the later morning connections. Not sure how the load will pan out for this 7am arrival into DXB.
20 Oct 2015
Total posts 254
I did this last year, one of the best ways to use Qantas points for a bit of a fun splurge! Ah well, it was good while it lasted.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
23 Sep 2017
Total posts 164
That’s disappointing. Was it very popular, or were loadings light?
25 Oct 2019
Total posts 6
Hit and miss, I've had flights with 11 people in economy. But more often than not, it's had a good 70-80 per cent load factor.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
06 Aug 2017
Total posts 8
my first ever first class flight!...never wanted it to end!
25 Oct 2019
Total posts 6
The real shame here is that this flight was the only QF Group/QF code share flight arriving into SIN before the start of the workday. All other QF Group flights now depart between 12:00 and 15:00. All three flights within three hours of each other. Using EK405 means no day is wasted travelling to SIN, and on QF36 no day is wasted SIN-MEL.
The options are now to waste a business day travelling to SIN, or switch to SQ. Turkish is no good as their return isn't timed well.
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