Dubai’s Emirates pauses Melbourne route, extends suspension of flights to South Africa

Dubai carrier Emirates will continued to suspend flights to South Africa until March 10, 2021.

This suspension is in accordance with recent government directives that restrict the entry of travellers originating from South Africa, into the UAE, the carrier said in a travel update on its website.

“Customers holding tickets with final destinations in South Africa will not be accepted for travel at their point of origin. Emirates regrets any inconvenience caused. Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options,” Emirates added.

“Emirates remains committed to serving our customers in South Africa, and we look forward to resuming passenger services when conditions allow.”

The suspension follows an earlier one when Emirates had halted flights between the UAE and South Africa during January 16-28.

Read more: Emirates suspends all flights between Dubai and South Africa

In a similar directive, Emirates has also halted flights to the Australian city of Melbourne, a suspension that will continue through till March 26.

”In line with the Australian government directive to suspend all international passenger flights arriving into Melbourne, Emirates is temporarily suspending passenger operations to Melbourne from February 16. Given passenger allocation restrictions on flights to Australia, the suspension will remain in place until March 26, 2021,” an Emirates spokesperson told Gulf Business.

“During this time, flight EK408 will operate as a cargo-only service. The return flight EK409 from Melbourne to Dubai will operate normally with both passenger and cargo capacity. Affected customers should contact their travel agent or Emirates contact centre for rebooking options. In the meantime, we continue to operate our flights for passengers to Sydney, Brisbane and Perth.”

Last month, the airline suspended all flights between Dubai and Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia “until further notice.” The decision was made due to “operational reasons”.

Read: Emirates to indefinitely suspend flights between Dubai and Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane

However, flights were resumed in the last week of January.