Silver Lining as Emirates Ends Melbourne-Singapore Service

Emirates is ending its fifth-freedom flight between Melbourne and Singapore on 30 March 2025.

From this date, Emirates will instead replace the tag flight with a third daily non-stop Melbourne-Dubai service. The silver lining is that this new service will feature Emirates’ best First Class product, as well as its new Business and Premium Economy seats!

Emirates’ Melbourne-Singapore-Dubai route

Emirates has been operating the Melbourne-Singapore-Dubai route as EK404 and EK405 since before the pandemic. It was paused in March 2020 due to COVID-19, but came back in March 2023.

The Melbourne-Singapore portion has been a popular route for redeeming Qantas Frequent Flyer points due to the good amount of Business and First Class reward availability offered.

The daytime flight from Singapore to Melbourne has been especially popular, as Emirates’ usual carrier charges don’t apply when booking in that direction. Indeed, I used my own Qantas points last year to fly from Singapore to Melbourne in Emirates First Class.

Emirates had applied to the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore (CCCS) to terminate the route in mid-2024. It needed to get permission from Singapore’s competition regulator because Emirates and Qantas had committed to operating minimum levels of capacity on the Singapore-Melbourne route as a condition of being allowed to coordinate on price and schedule.

The airline received permission to end the service in December 2024, when it announced 30 March 2025 as the date. This coincides with the changeover between the IATA northern winter and summer scheduling periods.

Qantas will continue to operate two daily Melbourne-Singapore flights after Emirates withdraws from the route. From 30 March 2025, Qantas had initially planned to increase its capacity slightly by operating Airbus A330-300s, which have more Economy seats, instead of A330-200s. The schedules now show a mix of A330-200s and A330-300s.

Emirates will continue to codeshare on the Qantas flights between Melbourne and Singapore.

This leaves Sydney-Christchurch as Emirates’ last fifth freedom route that touches Australia. A fifth-freedom route is a tag flight that an airline operates to a third country as an extension of another international flight. (In the case of Sydney-Christchurch, this flight continues to Christchurch from Sydney after arriving from Dubai.)

Emirates’ new non-stop Melbourne-Dubai service

Replacing the one-stop service via Singapore, Emirates will launch a third daily non-stop flight from Melbourne to Dubai on 30 March 2025.

This is the schedule of the new non-stop service, as of April 2025:

• EK404 Dubai 21:15 – Melbourne 16:40 (next day)
• EK405 Melbourne 22:55 – Dubai 07:00 (next day)

This service will use a refurbished four-class Boeing 777-300ER fitted with Emirates’ newer Business Class seats.

This aircraft also features Emirates Premium Economy.

Emirates Game Changer First Class coming to Melbourne

Perhaps the most exciting thing about this new service, for those lucky enough to be in First Class, is that Emirates will now use its “Game Changer” First Class product. Found on only nine planes, this is Emirates’ best First Class product – and widely regarded as one of the best in the world.

If you have a chance to use Qantas points to fly in Emirates’ Game Changer First Class, you’re unlikely to regret it!

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.