Emirates has revealed that it will operate the A380 to Johannesburg just once daily in March, based on its latest schedule filing. However, the 3,970-mile (6,389km) route will still increase from double daily to triple daily on March 1st – just two flights will be by the 777-300ER and one by the A380. As of February 6th, Johannesburg is expected to be twice daily A380 and once daily 777-300ER from April.
Dubai to Johannesburg in March
Emirates will increase Dubai to Johannesburg to triple daily from March, up from double daily in February. However, there will be fewer A380 flights. The latest schedule and latest changes are as follows, with all times local:
Dubai to Johannesburg: EK761, 04:40-10:55; 777-300ER← was to see the A380 in March
Dubai to Johannesburg: EK763, 10:10-16:35; A380
Dubai to Johannesburg: EK765, 14:40-20:50; 777-300ER ← flight returns on March 1st
Johannesburg to Dubai: EK762, 12:55-23:15; 777-300ER ← was to see the A380 in March
Johannesburg to Dubai: EK764, 18:50-05:05+1; A380
Johannesburg to Dubai: EK766, 22:20-08:20+1; 777-300ER ← flight returns on March 1st
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Almost 10,000 seats have been removed
While the number of March flights remains the same, reducing the A380 to daily means the total number of seats for sale has fallen by 12%, according to OAG data. Some 9,858 two-way seats have been removed in March, equating to a drop of 318 daily.
Obviously, economy has seen the most significant reduction (-7,378 fewer March seats, down by 11%). However, on a percentage basis, business is the worst affected (-18%, 2,108 fewer seats), with first next (-17%; 372). In contrast, greater use of the 777-300ER means Johannesburg gets more freight capacity.
Between 2014 and early 2020, Emirates had four daily Johannesburg flights, showing that the market continues to recover. It is now one of nine Emirates routes over 3,000 miles (4,882km) to have triple daily flights or more every day in March. The others are London Heathrow, Bangkok, Frankfurt, London Gatwick, Manchester, New York JFK, Paris CDG, and Singapore. (Manila has 18 weekly flights, so triple daily on certain days, while Melbourne becomes three daily from the end of March.)
Photo: Tom boon | Simple Flying.
Where Johannesburg passengers go
In 2019, Emirates had just over 1.2 million roundtrip Johannesburg seats for sale, according to OAG. Booking data reveals that it carried marginally over one million passengers, for an average seat load factor of 81%.
Over seven in ten passengers (approximately 740,000) transited to Emirates/flydubai's other services over Dubai (see below). A further ~194,000 were point-to-point: they only traveled between Johannesburg and Dubai. They didn't continue. That's a good volume and equates to passengers daily each way (PDEW) of 266. Around 58,000 passengers transited both Dubai and Johannesburg, while finally, an estimated 21,000 flew Dubai-Johannesburg-XXX.
Booking data shows that more Johannesburg passengers flew to/from India than any other country, followed by the US, UK, Thailand, Pakistan, China, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Germany. At the airport level, Johannesburg over Dubai to/from Mumbai was the most popular market, then Heathrow, Phuket, Bangkok, Delhi, Amsterdam, Dhaka, JFK, Beijing, and Gatwick.
