Gulf airline Emirates says bookings for December have been brisk and that the carrier is almost at full capacity for December and into January.

Country manager Enda Corneille (pictured) said the partial reopening of Australian borders has been a game-changer.

The Dubai to Sydney route is serviced by the airline’s flagship A380 aircraft and it is expected that the A380 will also be redeployed on the Melbourne route from February 2022.

Having reduced its service to just two weekly flights at the start of the pandemic, Emirates is currently operating a daily service between Dublin and Dubai. The top two destinations for Ireland’s holidaymakers are Dubai and the Maldives, with Dubai attracting almost 70% of all passenger traffic.

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Thailand has seen a spike in bookings since the recent lifting of restrictions for vaccinated visitors and next week Emirates’ A380 service will return to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport.

“We have no dates as yet for the resumption of our double daily service from Dublin. The further lifting of restrictions in Australia, and other markets, will be central to that decision and I’m hopeful that we will be able to continue rebuilding our schedule from Dublin next year,” Corneille added.

Corneille said that fares are in line with pre-Covid prices, with Economy Class return flights to Dubai from Dublin starting from c.€500.

Emirates has restored 90% of its network and is on track to reach 70% of pre-pandemic capacity by the end of 2021. The average load has recovered 47.9% compared with last year's pandemic figure of 38.6%.