Emirates ends Melbourne-Singapore route

The 777 service is popular with many travellers, but not popular enough…

By David Flynn, September 9 2024
Emirates ends Melbourne-Singapore route

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.

As first reported over the weekend in Singapore’s The Straits Times, the Gulf carrier and Qantas partner has informed the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore of its plan to axe the route, which has been in place since 1996.

An Emirates spokesperson told The Straits Times it would announce the date when the route would close “after receiving the final assessment from CCCS regarding the impact of being released from its capacity commitments that were set out in an alliance with Qantas.”

Emirates notes 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).

Approached by Executive Traveller for further comment, an Emirates spokesperson said the airline “will determine the termination date of the EK404/405 Singapore-Melbourne service after receiving the final assessment of the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS).”

“When the termination date is finalised, Emirates will communicate changes to affected passengers and offer them alternative travel arrangements.”

Arguably the best way to burn off 100,000 Qantas frequent flyer points...
Arguably the best way to burn off 100,000 Qantas frequent flyer points...

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.

That Singapore-Melbourne leg proved exceptionally popular with savvy Qantas frequent flyers, who could parlay 107,700 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.
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.

The cocktail bar on Emirates ' A380 superjumbo.
The cocktail bar on Emirates ' A380 superjumbo.

Long-time Executive Traveller readers will recall Emirates ran a similar Dubai-Singapore-Brisbane flight along the same lines, which ended in 2019.

Emirates intends to continue its four daily flights between Singapore and Dubai, and its double-daily frequency between Melbourne and Dubai.

At the time of writing, Emirates is still selling tickets for the Melbourne-Singapore legs of EK404/EK405 through to the end of August 2025.

Once the airline has revealed the final date for that flight – which could come at the end of March 2025, or even sooner – it will be in a position to advise of alternative arrangements and the possibility of refunds for passengers holding tickets, including those who’ve booked with frequent flyer points.

Also read: How to get an Emirates status match

JKH
JKH

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

23 Sep 2017

Total posts 160

Disappointing, especially the loss of the civilised daytime flight SIN-MEL.

24 Aug 2011

Total posts 1199

This flight made more sense pre-COVID when it offered a daytime SIN-MEL sector and a late departure out of MEL that got you into SIN around 1AM but enabled you to work a full day in MEL before flying out.  

Post-COVID, the ridiculous schedule meant it was attractive to no one.  It is no wonder it was easy to find reward seats on the flight.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

03 Jan 2013

Total posts 65

I have used this service quite a few times over the years, and also the BNE one before it was axed. The main thing enjoyed about it was the timing into SIN, which was why i flew it. The EK 777 J product is tired, angled bed, 7 across - not ideal for an overnight flight.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

20 Aug 2014

Total posts 166

Agree with @nixjet. I won't miss the 7 across angled beds, but if I'm not wrong, this was the only daytime flight bookable from Singapore to Australia on Qantas. I will miss that.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

14 Jun 2014

Total posts 19

Used to love this daytime flight back home from Singapore, so much nicer than the later red eye options...

01 Oct 2021

Total posts 19

Emirates should add a third daily nonstop service to Melbourne possibly on a 777 instead of A380, with new a flight time. Maybe an afternoon departure out of Melbourne would be nice.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

11 Oct 2014

Total posts 693

Never been a fan of 'coffin class' on the B777, irrespective of airline or soft-product. Noisy cabin and cramped narrow seats. Perhaps if EK had upgraded their old layout with the current (in progress) refit, it might have garnered a little more popularity.

However, with the return of additional QF A380's from the refit ptoject, I'm wondering if QF *might* be brave enough to provide MEL - SIN travellers with a decent daytime service by flagging in an A380 ?? Years ago pre-COVID, QF ran a similar daytime service ex SIN to SYD, departing SIN around 9:00 am - and it was quite a popular flight. The demographics between SYD and MEL are almost identical, so it would be great to see something like this eventuate.

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

16 Jan 2018

Total posts 128

They did run a day time service although I have a feeling that was a connecting service. I want to say it was a QF32. But that had a midday turn around from LHR as opposed to the evening departure of QF2. But then that got axed and servicing SIN only for probably the last 8-10 years, maybe more. 

01 Oct 2021

Total posts 19

I think they have enough because I noticed the MEL-LA flights have been on the A380 more days a week. Hopefully Melbourne’s Qantas A380 operations get restored. 

10 Jul 2023

Total posts 4

Would have been nice if they had taken the opportunity to do something innovative and switch MEL for another smaller city they don't currently serve, like CBR perhaps or, at a stretch, NTL. Oh well! 

Yeah, because when a route isn't profitable flying to a city like Melbourne with a population of 5+ million, the smart thing to do it switch it to a city like Canberra with a population of a half-million people or Newcastle with <200k people.

Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer

10 Sep 2024

Total posts 1

My recollection is that the SIN-MEL leg pre Covid  was a night time flight leaving at about 10.30pm, with a 6pm MEL departure on the way back.  That was great for Singapore residents as they could do a full day’s work or school before leaving, and on the way back be able have most of the day in Melbourne and still get back to Singapore to get a night’s sleep before work/school the next day.  For a period they used the A380 on this route and it was fabulous in economy.  The shift back to 777s (with 10 abreast in a narrower cabin) and change of flight times made it much less attractive.  Was our preferred option for family travel on this route.

01 Jun 2017

Total posts 17

Back in 2015-16 the flight times were:

EK404:   DXB - SIN - MEL   0900 - 2000;  2200 - 0800

EK405:   MEL - SIN - DXB   1800 - 2350;  0130 - 0430

This was popular then and even an A380 was deployed which was amazing.  This schedule also was timed for passengers from MEL going to Colombo (CMB) via SIN (and return) before Sri Lanka Airlines starting direct flights to MEL.  How this flight could dovetail into the Colombo flight was because EK was also doing the route DXB - CMB - SIN that leaves the same time as EK404.  Therefore passengers could do CMB - SIN - MEL and MEL - SIN - CMB.  When direct flights started between CMB and MEL, little incentive to keep this route plus the downside of EK 404/405's timing meant the aircraft would sit idle in MEL for 10 hours before repatriating to DXB via SIN.

As EK already has two daily direct flights between DXB and MEL at the following times:

DXB - MEL   1000 - 0630 and 0230 - 2230

MEL - DXB   2130 - 0530 and 0600 - 1300;

it only made sense for EK to provide another timing DXB - MEL at 2130 for the 3rd catchment from Europe.  This 2130 timing does not have as much load as the other 2 DXB - MEL timing. So EK made the right choice of making this 2130 flight via SIN to capture some SIN passengers to fill the plane hence: 

EK404:   DXB - SIN - MEL   2130 - 0800;  0930 - 1930

EK405:   MEL - SIN - DXB   0230 - 0800;  1000 - 1300

This timing unlike the 2015-16 timing, the 777 aircraft only sits in MEL for 7 hours from 1930 to 0230.

EK used to operate fifth freedom flights to Australia via Asia given Asia is almost in the middle between Dubai and Australia. We used to have these on top of the direct services:

DXB - SIN - MEL (last to go)

DXB - BKK - SYD (2nd to go)

DXB - SIN - BNE (3rd to go)

DXB - KUL - MEL (first to be cancelled)

Spy
Spy

Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer

13 Aug 2016

Total posts 16

Not happy Emirates! My wife and I loved the break in Singapore for a few days on the way home to Melb. And business seats were easy to get with Qantas points. (Could never get them on Qantas flights).


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