Dubai's flag carrier has served up its plans for the first Grand Slam of 2027. On 6 November 2026, Emirates confirmed it returns as Official Airline of the Australian Open for AO 2027, unveiling an Australian themed hospitality concept, a bigger role for Kids Tennis Day presented by Emirates and a fresh round of onboard activations. The announcement, made in Melbourne alongside Tennis Australia, comes as the tournament expands to 22 days for the first time.
It is not a new contract. Emirates and Tennis Australia signed a five-year renewal in December 2024 that keeps the airline as Official Airline until 2029, on top of a partnership that began in 2015. What makes this week's news worth studying is the way a UAE brand keeps an established sports sponsorship fresh, year after year, in a market thousands of kilometres from home.
For marketers in Dubai and across the Gulf, the Emirates and Australian Open relationship is a masterclass in long-term sports marketing: one partner, one tournament, more than a decade of consistent investment, and a programme that is rebuilt every season around hospitality, families and local culture.
According to the Emirates media centre release, the airline's AO 2027 theme puts Australia itself at the heart of its presence at Melbourne Park. The Emirates Marquee will be redesigned under the title "Coastline as a Landscape", with layered horizontal curves and a natural palette inspired by the Australian coastline. The menu, named "Adventures Around the Coastline", features local produce including mussels, salmon, kingfish, oysters and lamb, a pavlova station and playful reworkings of classics such as "Adult Fairy Bread" and "Shrimp on the Barbie". Travels Dubai adds detail on dishes like paperbark smoked salmon and Indigo Valley lamb with a Vegemite glaze.
Emirates' unlimited First Class caviar service returns at selected events and through the Finals Series. The airline says it will host more than 1,350 guests in the Marquee during AO27, including Skywards members, global business leaders, celebrities and sporting icons, building on more than 16,000 guests welcomed since 2015.
The partnership also extends into the air. Matches will be shown live on Emirates' ice inflight entertainment system, with Australian Open themed amenities and menus onboard. That is a smart piece of event sponsorship: the airline turns its own cabins into a broadcast and branding channel for the tournament, reaching travellers who might otherwise miss the action.
The biggest structural change concerns Kids Tennis Day presented by Emirates. Ausopen.com reports that the event will move to Sunday 10 January for the first time, officially kicking off Opening Week and what the organisers call a three-week extravaganza of tennis and entertainment. Five official Australian Open match courts, including the 3,000 seat ANZ Arena, will be dedicated to activities for kids throughout the day, with interactive games, Open Practice sessions with top players, player appearances, family entertainment and the return of the Rod Laver Arena Spectacular. The whole precinct will be open, including the AO Ballpark presented by Emirates.
Tennis Australia chief executive Andrew Abdo explained the thinking in the Emirates release: "The Australian Open continues to evolve and 2027 marks another exciting milestone as we expand to a 22-day tournament for the first time." He added: "By moving Kids Tennis Day to Sunday 10 January, we're creating an additional day for fans to enjoy everything the AO has to offer while putting families and young people at the heart of the tournament's opening weekend."
On ausopen.com, Abdo said: "Kids Tennis Day presented by Emirates has always been about introducing more kids and families to tennis," and noted that opening five match courts "will give thousands of kids the chance to pick up a racquet and play on courts where the world's best players will compete just days later."
Australian tennis great Lleyton Hewitt also backed the move: "Kids Tennis Day Presented by Emirates gives kids and families the chance to get up close to the game, have some fun and be inspired by tennis' biggest stars." For a brand, having its name attached to the day that opens a Grand Slam, and to a family audience, is a powerful form of sports branding that goes well beyond logo placement.
Emirates began working with Tennis Australia in 2015. In December 2024 the two sides announced a five-year renewal that keeps the airline as Official Airline until 2029, as confirmed by both the Emirates media centre and ausopen.com. Neither party disclosed the value. Alongside the commercial deal, Emirates committed $2.25 million over five years from 2025 to a Force for Good programme with the Australian Tennis Foundation, funding free tennis for disadvantaged young people in five Australian cities.
At the time, Emirates' Divisional Vice President Australasia Barry Brown described the agreement as "Our five-year renewal with Tennis Australia on top of an existing decade-long partnership", while Vicki Reid of the Australian Tennis Foundation said "The multi-year partnership will uplift and support tens of thousands of disadvantaged youth through the power of tennis."
This week Brown framed the AO 2027 programme around the airline's deep roots in the country: "For more than 30 years, Emirates has been connecting Australia to the world, and the world to Australia." He continued: "Our AO27 theme is a celebration of everything we love about Australia, its food, its creativity and its world-famous hospitality, brought together with the signature Emirates experience." On Kids Tennis Day he added: "We're proud to continue presenting Kids Tennis Day, and to help even more young Australians fall in love with the game."
That consistency matters. Traveltalk Media reports that Emirates' first flight to Australia landed in Melbourne in June 1996, and that the airline now operates 70 weekly services across five gateways: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. The Australian Open is therefore not an abstract global platform for the airline. It sits in the city where its Australian story began, in a market where it has a real commercial footprint to support. Strong sponsorships tend to work this way, linking a property directly to a business objective.
The Australian Open has been growing fast. Ausopen.com's review of AO 2026 reports a record attendance of 1,368,043 fans over three weeks, up from 1,218,831 in 2025, with Opening Week alone drawing 217,999 people compared with 116,528 a year earlier. The organisers noted that, for the first time, the entire precinct was activated for a full 21 days. Tennis Nerd reported that AO 2026 offered a record A$111.5m prize pool, up 16% on the previous year.
Expanding to 22 days in 2027, with Kids Tennis Day as the opening act, gives partners even more time and space to engage fans. For Emirates, the Opening Week audience is especially valuable: families, young players and local fans who may not hold tickets for the main draw but who become loyal followers of the event and its partners. Each additional day is more content, more hospitality and more brand awareness.
The tournament also sits within a premium partner line up. Sportsmint Media lists Emirates as an Associate Partner of AO 2026 alongside ANZ, Luzhou Laojiao and Rolex, with Kia as Major Partner. Standing out in that company requires more than signage, which is why the airline invests so heavily in hospitality design, food and storytelling around Australian culture.
Look closely at the 6 November announcement and one theme dominates: hospitality. The Marquee design, the menu, the caviar service and the guest numbers take up most of the Emirates release. That is no accident. For an airline, the people inside the Marquee are among its most valuable audiences: frequent flyers in the Skywards programme, corporate travel decision makers, partners and media.
More than 16,000 guests since 2015 represents a substantial private audience, hosted in a relaxed setting during one of the most watched events of the southern summer. Each visit is a chance to show the premium product that Emirates sells on its long haul flights, from food and service to design. In that sense the Marquee works almost like a flagship lounge on the ground, and the tournament gives it a natural reason to exist.
This approach also explains the choice of an Australian theme. By celebrating local produce, coastline design and familiar dishes with a playful twist, Emirates positions itself as a brand that understands and respects Australian culture, rather than a foreign carrier simply buying exposure. That local sensitivity is one of the reasons the partnership has lasted more than a decade, and it is a principle any brand can borrow when entering a new market through sport.
The 22-day format strengthens that engine further. More days mean more sessions to fill with guests, more matches to stream on board and more occasions for content. For a hospitality led sponsor, longer events are not a cost to absorb but an opportunity to deepen relationships with the clients and travellers who matter most. It is an example of event sponsorship growing in value as the property itself grows.
The Australian Open deal is one piece of one of the most complete tennis portfolios in sport. According to the Dubai Media Office, Emirates has supported the US Open since 2012, Roland Garros since 2013 and the Australian Open since 2015, and in 2024 became Official Airline Partner of Wimbledon. It has been Official Airline of the ATP Tour since 2013 and Premier Partner since 2016, and has backed the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships since they began in 1993.
In June 2025, Emirates renewed its ATP partnership through 2030, with hospitality at close to 60 tournaments on six continents, and became the tour's first umpire sleeve patch partner from 2026. In January 2026, the airline revealed an A380 carrying the logos of all four Grand Slams, whose first flight landed in Melbourne for the start of AO 2026. Few brands can tell a single tennis story across every major, every season.
Beyond tennis, the Emirates sponsorships page lists football partners including Real Madrid, Arsenal, AC Milan, Benfica and Olympique Lyonnais, as well as the NBA, Rugby World Cup, cricket, golf, cycling through UAE Team Emirates and sailing. The common thread is scale and longevity. Emirates rarely buys a one-off moment; it builds multi-year relationships that compound in value through repeated exposure and hospitality.
For UAE companies thinking about sport, abroad or at home, the Emirates and Australian Open model offers several practical lessons.
First, choose properties that connect to real business goals. The Australian Open sits in Emirates' first Australian city, on a route network it is actively selling. A real estate developer, bank or tourism board in the UAE should apply the same logic, matching each sponsorship to markets where it wants customers.
Second, refresh activation every year. The rights stay the same through 2029, yet the 2027 programme has a new theme, new menus, a new hospitality design and a new date for Kids Tennis Day. Thoughtful event sponsorship keeps the audience curious and gives media a reason to cover the partnership again.
Third, use owned channels. Showing matches on the inflight system, branding amenities and offering hospitality to Skywards members turns the sponsorship into a loyalty tool. Combined with content marketing across social media and press, every asset works harder.
Fourth, invest in community. The Australian Tennis Foundation programme and Kids Tennis Day give the partnership purpose and a positive story that goes beyond commercial exposure. Working with respected former players such as Hewitt, a classic ambassador style role, adds credibility with families.
Finally, think long term. A sponsorship that runs from 2015 to at least 2029 has time to become part of the event's identity. That is the kind of sports branding that a short campaign cannot buy. For brands that want to replicate this approach, a specialist sports marketing partner can help identify the right properties, negotiate rights and design activation that delivers measurable brand awareness.
AO 2027 will now run from Kids Tennis Day on Sunday 10 January to the singles finals on 30 and 31 January, according to ausopen.com. Emirates will be present from the opening morning to the final trophy, in the Marquee, on the courts with thousands of children, and in the air on flights to and from Australia. Ticket details and the full entertainment line up for Kids Tennis Day will be announced later.
Expect the partnership to generate plenty of visibility over those three weeks, from branded courtside moments and family activities to the Marquee guest list and onboard broadcasts. For Emirates, this is consistent sports branding in one of its most important long haul markets, reinforced by a route network that brings visitors to Melbourne. For Tennis Australia, it is a committed partner helping to fill an expanded schedule with experiences that build brand awareness for the tournament itself among the next generation of fans.
For the Gulf sports industry, the takeaway is clear. The most valuable sports sponsorship is not always the newest headline deal. It is often the partnership that is renewed, reinvented and executed with care every single year. Emirates has shown once again how a UAE brand can become part of the fabric of a global event, and how patient investment in sponsorships can turn a tournament into a lasting home for a brand.
Sources: Emirates, Australian Open, Travels Dubai, Traveltalk Media, Dubai Media Office, Tennis Nerd, Sportsmint Media
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