Interesting, basically seems to suggest EK dont expect much this summer and will be a minimal service. Does tie in with A380 in October when they will see more of a resumption, only A380 i can see being run would be if Hajj goes ahead in which case based on demand it may be cost effective to use the A380

even an October introduction is now under scrutiny, likely only on the big routes (lon/syd/jfk etc)

Situation over the next few months of course will be very fluid. Flights depend a lot on government announcements that their countries will open to international flights. Sometimes these announcements can be with notice, others can be snap announcements. We saw last week as Dubai announced removal of lockdown with almost immediate effect.
How much notice would EK need to start up some kind of flight operations on scheduled basis if and its just hypothetical situation that for example both Australia and EU announced with simultaneous dates that theyre both open... ie something that EK would have as some music to their ears for PAX transfer traffic and commercial viability ?

they wont need much time, crew are all based here, plenty of aircraft... I do think demand is there, people are sick of staying home and with the upcoming school holidays I think parents are too! I'm sure EK will start ops within days

Im glad someone else shares my exact opinion!

I think it need to take times longer then what we expect, as we all want to travel soon but the ticket price will be high at begin as the plan can't load the same capacity as before.

as every airline know if the virus pandemic after resume to normal operation as before, this time will be more airline need to file bankruptcy

Even if if ticket prices are high to begin with, they will probably fall quite quickly. Most airlines will want to start up as quick as possible and there will soon be a glut of seats on many routes. And of course they will be desperate for advance bookings... Especially in premium classes.

Ok, let’s go back to basic’s what’s EK core market’s?

- Expats visiting home (India/Pakistan/Malaysia, Africa etc)

- Expats working away (Philippines)

- Business Travel

- Holiday / Leisure

If EK is to resume a basic service, it needs some of the core markets to open, so issues for;

- Expats visiting home – EK needs it to go back to open borders but no quarantine or limited quarantine. Who wants to travel back home and be stuck in quarantine? Users need assurance EK won’t shut down but also countries wont lock them in

- Expat’s working away – World economy is in for a kick in and users need stable jobs to go to. EK also has the open borders issue to fly into.

- Business travel – EK need’s companies to allow staff to travel, companies to spend, my company has restricted and now needs anyone to have approved by HQ!

- Holiday / Leisure – here there will be demand but users need open borders again.

When you consider Europe is starting to open and allowing its own citizens to move hence between however not anyone from outside the EU. US has grounded inbound for foreigners; Asia is very much on lock down. The UAE lockdown probably did not help EK as Qatar took the role of being a repatriation airline.

If EK is to resume quickly, it needs either a common approach to open borders in order for one of the core markets to open. Demand will be there if the doors are open, if you think logically who wants to travel to a foreign country become trapped and risk your livelihood. Therefore, I think EK will not resume quickly but as markets open it will add services. July expect a basic launch of countries open and if things are positive then a quick ramp up as demand expands.

Air Arabia have just announced theyre taking pax res for their partial network over SHJ hub starting June 1. Tho they stress if any xxcls the refunds will be in voucher form. Maybe just a fund raising ploy? June 1 does correspond with shortly after Ramadan/Eid, when theres lots of holiday traffic.

your point is really in details, sad less but true, every where is still lock down. look at airline resume operation just like window shopping. all the africa and south east asia country is looking forward to re open after USA and europe re open in May and June. now every one is planning for reopen the store, I heard so many times my customer is planning reopen their store over US and euro, however this won't help the economic as those inventory already ship on 6 months before, unit today I still have not hear anything from my customer for their this year winter order that should be show up on last month. the economic must turn downward for a long time, every one request for supplier giving a longer credit terms up to 6 months, that means supplier can receive payment 9 months later. as the projection this may change in 2021 if this year winter COVID won't outbreak again.

I have a flight booked with Emirates from ICN to DXB on 16th May.
However, everything I've read suggests the flight no longer exists. I can't find it by searching on those dates.
But my booking appears CONFIRMED and haven't received any word about the flight. Not sure how to proceed, Expedia weren't any help either.

I have been looking at trying to get from AKL to SYD at the beginning of June and have tried several booking engines/agencies and they all list a flight for that route by Emirates (EK5044 18:05), I checked the Emirates site and it's listed there also as bookable but the thing is that it says the flight is operated by QANTAS but QANTAS says they have no plans to restart the AKL-SYD service so why is Emirates showing it as a valid flight when it doesn't actually exist?

There are no flights from ICN that day, so it's definitely been cancelled.

Have you logged onto the Emirates site using the PNR supplied by Expedia? If it's still showing a operating, give it a few more days and it should then show as cancelled.

If the situation continues to get better in South Asia (as in no dramatic increase in cases), and in Dubai, one would expect there to be reasonable demands for flying during Eid Adha which is end of July.

Of course that is after the repatriation of hundreds of thousands of laid off people is dealth with (200,000+ Indians in UAE have registered to be repatriated, which means another 200,000 among other Asian communities)