Emirates will begin services directly between Dubai and New Zealand bypassing Melbourne and Brisbane, and Qantas will run additional services between Australia and New Zealand, as part of a changes to their partnership agreement. It follows an announcement in August from Qantas that it will no longer fly to London via Dubai but use Singapore as its hub for London customers. In what appears to be an increase in competition between the two, Emirates will retain its existing daily A380 flights from Dubai to Christchurch via Sydney, but said Wednesday it would also evaluate potential new direct services between New Zealand and Dubai. The new agreement will see Qantas adding 7 new return flights per week between Melbourne and Auckland and an extra 2 return services per week between Brisbane and Auckland. <br/>