The Competition and Consumer Commission Singapore (CCCS) has launched public consultations on an application by Emirates (EK, Dubai International) to terminate its Singapore Changi-Brisbane International operations. The CCCS said in a press release that consultations will run until September 24.
The Emirati carrier committed to maintaining its Sydney-Brisbane flights as a condition to receiving clearance of its partnership with Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith). At that time, in 2012, the CCCS identified that since both Emirates and Qantas served routes from Melbourne Tullamarine and Brisbane to Singapore, the partnership could have harmed passengers by reducing the number of frequencies. To alleviate these concerns, the airline voluntarily vowed to maintain, and under certain circumstances to increase, seat capacity on the flights.
Emirates has cited overcapacity, declining revenues, and rising costs that have resulted in substantial losses on this route as grounds for its planned termination of the Singapore-Brisbane flights.
According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Emirates currently serves the route daily using B777-300(ER) equipment. Qantas also operates the route daily, while Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) serves it 4x daily. In recent years, Emirates has cut several fifth freedom routes from Australia with Sydney Kingsford Smith-Christchurch its only remaining route besides the two services linking Singapore with Brisbane and Melbourne.
