The Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) approved Emirates' application to remove its capacity commitments for its Singapore Changi to Brisbane International route on November 14.

Emirates currently flies a daily B777-300(ER) service between the two cities, equivalent to 4,956 seats per week, and at the time of writing, flight EK432, the service in question, remains on sale. Other operators on the 3,316-nautical mile (6,142-kilometre) sector include Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith), which flies daily, and Singapore Airlines (SQ, Singapore Changi) which offers a 4x daily A350-900 service.

The agreement with the CCCS stretches back to October 2012, when it received an application for an alliance between Emirates and Qantas, allowing the two carriers "to coordinate various aspects of their flight services such as pricing (relating to fares, rebates, incentives, and discounts), scheduling, marketing, planning, operating capacity, and airport facilities."

The CCCS cleared the airlines' proposal in March 2013, after it determined that with the capacity commitments, the alliance would result in net economic benefits despite the competition concerns arising from the price and capacity coordination. As part of the approval, both airlines offered to maintain and under certain circumstances, to increase seat capacity on the flights operated by the two carriers on the Singapore to Melbourne Tullamarine and Singapore to Brisbane routes.

However, in April this year, Emirates applied to the CCCS to vary the agreement by removing the minimum seat capacity commitment in respect of the Singapore-Brisbane route, allowing it to withdraw service from this city pair. The CCCS did not receive any feedback on concerns regarding the variation to the agreement during a period of consultation in September.

Emirates provided evidence to the CCCS to support the carrier's claims on capacity under-utilisation, falling revenues and rising costs in relation to the Singapore-Brisbane route. Its daily service between Singapore and Melbourne remains unaffected.

The CCCS determined that there was adequate seat capacity to meet passenger demand for journeys terminating in Singapore or Brisbane, as Qantas is maintaining its commitment to provide at least 3,290 seats per week.

In a recent schedule update, Emirates has now withdrawn flights EK432 and EK433 from the end of March, 2020. The Middle East carrier will retain its 2x daily direct flights from its Dubai International hub to the Australian city.