Emirates announced it would:
• Grow from 49 flights a week to 56 flights a week during 2008;
• Increase this to 70 flights a week during 2009;
• Fly twice daily to Brisbane in 2008;
• Fly three times daily to Melbourne and Sydney from 2009; and
• Launch Airbus A380 direct services from Dubai to Sydney and Melbourne in
2009.

The second daily service to Brisbane will be introduced in October 2008 using A340-500 equipment and the third daily service to Melbourne will commence in February 2009. Sydney will go to a triple daily service in late 2009. These three additional flights will all be non-stop from Dubai.

Emirates’ first Airbus A380 services to Australia will commence in the first quarter of 2009 with a direct service to Sydney. The A380 service to Melbourne will come online as more aircraft are delivered from Airbus. Australia will be among the first countries to be served by Emirates’ A380s.

“The introduction of the Emirates Airbus A380 heralds a new dawn in long-haul passenger aviation making the journey to and from Australia even more spacious, environmentally friendly and enjoyable,” H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman
and Chief Executive, said today in Sydney.

“The Airbus A380 is a very important aircraft to Emirates. Our first aircraft are the ultra long range version in a 489 seat, three-class configuration which is ideally suited for Australian flights and will address the current seat capacity shortage at many Australian airports.”

From July 2008, Emirates’ existing daily service to Brisbane via Singapore will be served by the new Boeing 777-300ER, which offers passengers industry-leading levels of comfort and service in all three cabins. The aircraft features eight enhanced First Class enclosed suites that Emirates had pioneered onboard its A340-500s in 2003; 42 Business Class mini-pods; 304 Economy Class seats; and ice Digital Widescreen that presents the broadest range of inflight entertainment content in the skies.

Emirates’ ice [information, communication and entertainment] system offers more than 1,000 channels of entertainment, over 10,000 music tracks and unique user functions that provide a more personalised entertainment experience.

Sheikh Ahmed said, “Emirates Airline has welcomed over six million passengers onto their Australian flights since its first service to Melbourne in 1996 and today’s announcement represents a strong commitment to build on that growth.

“The Emirates - Australian partnership has been a tourism and trade success story. Emirates has been fortunate to have received bi-partisan support at both a Federal and state level over many years.

“Today’s announcement is a multi-billion dollar fleet commitment to the Australian market
and will be supported by additional Australian jobs and promotion of the Australian tourism
industry, particularly in our 22 European markets.

“We are committing the latest technology to our Australian routes – the aircraft will be more efficient to operate and better for the environment. At the same time, these aircraft will enable Emirates to continue setting the gold standard in service.”