Dubai-based Emirates Air Line is one of the world’s largest users of fifth-freedom flights. All over the world, Emirates currently has 15 fifth-freedom tag flights that operate as a continuation of a service originating in Dubai to a third country.

By flying on Emirates fifth-freedom routes, you can experience the excellent Emirates service without ever going to Dubai. Emirates has a fleet of long-haul Boeing 777 and Airbus A380 aircraft, each fitted with Economy, Business and First Class seats.

For example, Emirates uses Airbus A380s on the Sydney-Christchurch route. This means you can experience Emirates’ superb First Class product – and even have a shower – when flying across the Tasman! You can also experience the new Emirates Premium Economy product on the Sydney-Christchurch route.

Other airlines flying narrow-bodies between Sydney and Christchurch can’t even come close to matching Emirates’ premium product.

A full list of Emirates fifth-freedom routes

Emirates currently operates 14 fifth-freedom routes. The newest additions to this list are Miami-Bogota and Singapore-Phnom Penh, which both launched during the last two months.

The airline will launch a fifteenth fifth-freedom route in September, a Boeing 777-300ER service from Mahé, Seychelles to Antananarivo, Madagascar.

Other than the Sydney-Christchurch service, Emirates’ other fifth-freedom service from Australia is between Melbourne and Singapore.

Here’s a complete overview of Emirates fifth-freedom routes, as of June 2024:

For those who prefer a visual representation, the map below shows these routes in green:

Emirates serves some of these routes as multi-stop tag flights in order to pick up additional passengers and make the route more economically viable. That’s the case with the Dubai-Singapore-Phnom Penh route, for example.

Other routes would simply not be possible to operate as non-stop services to/from Dubai with a full payload. For example, in 2019 Emirates launched its Mexico City-Dubai route via Barcelona (after a bit of a fight with Aeromexico) because of the high altitude of Mexico City’s airport. None of Emirates’ planes would be able to fly all the way from Mexico City to Dubai with a full payload.

In some cases, it’s a bit of both. Emirates would not be able to fly from Bogota to Dubai non-stop, so this new route operates via Miami. There’s also huge passenger and cargo demand between Miami and Bogota, so Emirates gets to tap into that as well.

Booking a seat using Qantas Frequent Flyer points

It’s possible to redeem Qantas Frequent Flyer points to fly on all Emirates routes. Classic Flight Reward availability is generally pretty good on most Emirates fifth-freedom routes, so this can be an excellent use of Qantas points.

Unfortunately, Emirates is rather notorious for its high carrier charges when you redeem points for a seat on one of its flights. But this is also where fifth-freedom flights can come in handy. 😉

On many fifth-freedom routes, Emirates levies much lower or even no carrier charges. For example, you could redeem 107,700 Qantas points to fly Emirates First Class from Singapore to Melbourne and pay less than $100 in taxes & charges. In the other direction, for some reason, you’d pay over $1,000 more.

It would cost

To redeem Qantas points on certain routes that aren’t available to book online, you would need to call Qantas.

If you’re looking for a cheap way to fly Emirates First Class without using points, the airfares on Emirates’ Bangkok-Hong Kong route are relatively affordable. This is another Airbus A380 route.

Past Emirates fifth-freedom routes

In the past, Emirates has flown lots of other tag flights between different cities. Some of these include:

• Sydney-Auckland
• Brisbane-Auckland
• Melbourne-Auckland
• Brisbane-Singapore
• Sydney-Bangkok
• Melbourne-Kuala Lumpur
• Auckland-Kuala Lumpur
• Auckland-Denpasar (Bali)
• Sao Paulo-Santiago
• Singapore-Colombo
• Singapore-Penang
• Bangkok-Phnom Penh
• Yangon-Phnom Penh

Fifth-freedom routes on other airlines

Wondering what other fifth-freedom routes exist?

Australian Frequent Flyer maintains a regularly-updated list of fifth-freedom flights on all airlines around the world! See our full list of global fifth-freedom routes.

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.