Emirates ending Singapore-Melbourne flights in March 2025

Emirates has long operated a fifth freedom flight between Singapore and Melbourne, providing an opportunity to try the Emirates inflight experience even when heading down under.

This route was temporarily suspended in mid-2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was later restored in March 2023, continuing a stellar track record that dates back to 1996.  However, it’s been living on borrowed time ever since August 2024, when the Gulf carrier applied for permission to terminate the service.

The actual termination date was unclear at the time, but we now know the final flight will take place on 30 March 2025. 

Emirates to axe Singapore – Melbourne flights

Emirates currently operates a daily service between Singapore and Melbourne on EK404/405, served by a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft.

Back in August 2024, Emirates applied to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) for permission to terminate its Melbourne services. Approval was necessary because back when Emirates and Qantas established a global alliance in 2013, both carriers gave a voluntary undertaking to the CCCS regarding seat capacity on the Singapore-Melbourne and Singapore-Brisbane routes (since terminated).

Approval was granted, and from 30 March 2025 this service will cease, replaced with a third non-stop service between Dubai and Melbourne. This will be operated by a newly retrofitted four-class Emirates Boeing 777-300ER, equipped with the new Premium Economy product and latest generation Business Class seats. The other two daily flights are operated by four-class Airbus A380s.

Emirates has said that affected customers holding bookings on this flight will be offered alternative travel arrangements, or a full refund. Given that this is happening on relatively short notice, I would encourage you to seek the former, as the cost of buying a replacement ticket may have gone up in the interim.

After all, there’s no shortage of options on the Singapore-Melbourne route, with Singapore Airlines, Scoot, Qantas, Jetstar and more recently Turkish Airlines. Concerns about excess capacity may very well have triggered Emirates’ decision.

With the termination of the Melbourne route, there will no longer be any Emirates flights between Singapore and Australia. Flights between Singapore and Brisbane were previously terminated in early 2020.

This was a good route to redeem Emirates awards

The termination of the Singapore-Melbourne route is particularly unfortunate because this was one of the best routes to redeem Emirates awards.

Emirates normally has hefty fuel surcharges on its flights, which can come up to four digits on certain routes- a lot to pay for a “free” ticket! However, these were extremely modest on the Singapore-Melbourne route, with passengers paying just S$88 in taxes and fees.

The cost in terms of miles was rather expensive though, at 87,000 Skywards miles for Business Class (108,000 Skywards miles round-trip) and 102,000 Skywards miles for First Class (204,000 Skywards miles round-trip).

The other downside was that the morning flight departure of EK404 did not allow passengers to try the Qantas Lounges in Singapore, including the peerless Qantas First Lounge– probably the best lounge in Changi Airport. The Emirates Lounge is a decent alternative, but I wouldn’t consider it to be in the same league.

If you’d like to do one last hurrah, I can find a good amount of Business Class award space on this route, though it should be noted that Emirates’ Business Class product on the B777-300ER isn’t exactly market-leading, with angled flat seats in a 2-3-2 configuration.

Conclusion

Emirates has confirmed the termination of its Singapore-Melbourne service from 30 March 2025, ending a continuous run of almost 30 years (COVID excluded, obviously). 

It’s quite remarkable the route lasted as long as it did, given that Emirates has been scaling back its fifth freedom flights (Bangkok to Sydney was also cut a few years ago). The airline still has codeshare agreements with Qantas, however, which probably factored into the decision. 

This means there will no longer be any Emirates fifth freedom flights between Singapore and Australia, though Turkish Airlines will continue to operate one service to Melbourne via Singapore.

(HT: Executive Traveller)