Update on 29 January 2021: Emirates has now resumed passenger flights to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane after temporarily suspending flights for a week. The lift in suspension is because of changes in Australia’s entry policy.

Australia has had tough quarantine and entry requirements due to the Covid-19 pandemic. There are entry caps in NSW, Queensland and WA and hard quarantine requirements for all people flying to Australia, including airline crew. Emirates had suspended passenger flights to Australia’s three biggest cities – Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne – last week because of operational difficulties. In a statement released by the company, Emirates announced that passenger flights will resume to Sydney from January 25^th, Melbourne from January 27^th and Brisbane from January 28^th. Passenger flights to Perth and cargo operations from all other Australian points will continue as scheduled.

Emirates has worked with different stakeholders to review entry protocol for crew and has come with a mutually amenable plan. The Emirates spokesperson in their statement said, “The pandemic has made international flying incredibly challenging and the dynamic restrictions and requirements implemented by the different state authorities in Australia had added complexity and burden to our operations. This led us to temporarily suspend passenger services while we engaged with various stakeholders regarding crew protocols and other operational details.”

Emirates suspends passenger flights to Australia; business as usual for cargo flights

Emirates recently announced that all passenger flights in and out of Australia’s biggest cities, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are suspended until further notice. However, it is business as usual for the freighter flights, which will continue to operate out of these cities.

The last flights to operate from these cities are:

• Dubai – Brisbane (EK430) on January 16
• Brisbane – Dubai (EK431) on January 17
• Dubai – Sydney (EK414) on January 18
• Sydney – Dubai (EK415) on January 19
• Dubai – Melbourne (EK408) on January 19
• Melbourne – Dubai (EK409) on January 20

The airline will continue its twice-weekly passenger flights between Dubai and Perth.

How will the Emirates suspension affect international pet travel from Australia?

The Emirates SkyCargo team has assured that all freighter flights out of and in to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne will continue operations per usual, as well as the road feeder service to and from Adelaide.

Pets flying on Emirates SkyCargo are not affected by the suspension of passenger flights. Pets with current conformed bookings with Emirates SkyCargo will fly as scheduled.

If your pet is flying Emirates SkyCargo or if you need information about booking or airline routes, reach out to the team at Petraveller for more details.