Emirates: Withdraws from Adelaide

Adelaide pre-COVID-19 used to have up to 9 airlines flying internationally out of their airport. They included – in no particular order:

• Air New Zealand
• Jetstar
• Emirates
• China Southern
• Cathay Pacific
• Malaysian Airlines
• Fiji Airways
• Singapore Airlines
• Qatar Airlines

Well you can kiss all that goodbye at the moment. There is basically no one flying into or out of Adelaide to an international destination at the moment. Occassionally you will see a foreign carrier, like Malindo Air flying in from Malaysia, and flying out to Bali for what I presume are repatriation flights. Other than that, I can’t find anything international flying in or out of Adelaide over the next few days.

Fiji Airways withdrew from Adelaide around this time in 2019, and the rest of the airlines have suspended their flights to South Australia, and indeed to most Australian airports

I think it’s unlikely that most of these airlines will return to servicing Adelaide any time soon. And by ‘anytime soon’ I mean before mid-2021.

It’s a pity. I used to love the idea, as I got on my Qantas flight back to Sydney in the evening, and Qatar plan sitting on the tarmac waiting to whisk Adelaideans off to Doha. I could entertain a mild fantasy of saying ‘Stuff going back to work in Sydney, I’ll head over to one of the international gates, and hop onto that A350 (they were the first to fly the aircraft to Australia in 2016) to Doha, and then on to some exotic destination.

Emirates out

Emirates have now indicated that they are out of Adelaide as well, although they ‘hope to restart our operations in Adelaide when it is commercially and operationally feasible to do so in the future.’ That’s according to ET.

2PAXfly Takeout

The aviation industry has a difficult road ahead when it comes to sustainability. It’s going to require a relative revolution in technology, with ‘electric planes’ or hydrogen planes, or some form of jet engine that doesn’t require a carbon based fuel. And that is going to require the development of an alternative to jet engines probably.

It’s a big ask. It will take time to develop.

This move to home grown and manufactured SAF is a first step – maybe even a baby step in a very long road of innovation. In the long run, US$200 million won’t even touch the sides.

Yep, I won’t stand around counting the minutes.