Queensland welcomes first Emirates A380 Brisbane flight

Queensland today welcomed the arrival of the first daily Emirates A380 Dubai-Brisbane-Auckland service in a boost worth an estimated $23 million in visitor expenditure annually.

Minister for Tourism, Major Events, Small Business and the Commonwealth Games Jann Stuckey was at Brisbane’s international airport today to welcome the first passengers aboard flight EK434.

“From today Emirates will operate daily return Dubai-Brisbane-Auckland A380 flights, providing almost 100,000 additional seats annually. This represents a 38 per cent increase in the number of available seats on the service,” Ms Stuckey said.

“The extra seats available support the Newman Government’s commitment to grow annual overnight visitor expenditure from $15 billion to $30 billion by 2020.”

Ms Stuckey said Emirates was the first international airline to introduce a scheduled A380 service into Queensland – an upgrade from the existing Boeing 777-300ERs.

“Emirates is a global airline with ports and connections throughout the world including the UK, Europe and New Zealand, three of Queensland’s key international markets,” she said.

“Emirates connects to 35 European and UK cities including well-established gateways such as London, Paris and Frankfurt.

“This A380 service into Brisbane will ensure greater access into Queensland for international travellers from across the world via the major hub of Dubai.

“Emirates’ partnership with Qantas will also allow international passengers to seamlessly travel to multiple destinations throughout Queensland.”

Ms Stuckey said the State Government established an $8 million Attracting Aviation Investment Fund in 2012 to support new aviation business into Queensland.

“Tourism and Events Queensland continues to work closely with Emirates on ways to support these services and joint marketing activities to drive demand for Queensland holidays,” she said.

Off the back of the first Emirates Dubai-Brisbane-Auckland A380 flight, Tourism and Events Queensland will host two New Zealand trade and media tours in the Brisbane region.

“The delegations will get a taste of some of Brisbane’s premier tourism experiences such as visiting a number of the newest culinary attractions; dolphin feeding and sand tobogganing on Moreton Island.”

In the year to June 2013 Queensland welcomed more than two million international visitors who spent almost $4 billion on trips to the State – increases of six and four per cent respectively compared with 2012.

[END] 2 October 2013

Media Contacts:

Andrew Burke (Minister Stuckey) 0439 291 238