Originally Posted by
airsurfer
Why don't they fly to Australia / NZ with a single stop in Asia instead of nonstop ? Two hours longer, but less fuel consumption.
Historically this is exactly what EK did. The problem is that from Europe two stops is very unpopular. It results in 3 roughly 7-8 hour sectors which means that you get very little rest over the journey. It also increases the crewing costs as they would have to slip the crew at the enroute point.
Many years ago I did LGW-DXB-SIN-BNE on EK in F and while it was very comfortable it was an exhausting journey. But it was £1000 cheaper than business on CX which in turn was quite a bit cheaper than BA/QF.