Sydney is now less than a day's travel time from Scotland thanks to new flights being introduced today by Emirates Airline.

The total journey time from Glasgow to Sydney has been slashed to 22 hours 25 minutes due to new quicker connections at the airline's Dubai hub.

The onward flight to Sydney has now been timetabled to depart just 75 minutes after the arrival of its daily flight from Glasgow.

The new quicker connection cuts around 8 hours off the previous journey time of over 30 hours.

Laurie Berryman, Emirates’ Manager for Scotland, said: "Australia is a key destination for both business and leisure passengers travelling with us from Scotland, and our new Sydney service makes flying Down Under quicker than ever before."

The daily air link between Glasgow and Dubai is now regarded as Scotland's most successful long haul route.

Berryman added: "Emirates is now firmly established as the first choice carrier for eastbound travel from Scotland.

"Flying time to Dubai is only 7 hours 25 minutes which means that expensive and time-consuming connections through London are now a thing of the past for Scottish travellers flying long haul."

The airline says that out of every 100 passengers flying out of Glasgow, 75 now use Dubai as a hub to fly to other cities.

Economy Class flights from Glasgow to Sydney start from £655 per person.

Meanwhile Canadian Affair, Scotland’s largest tour operator to Canada, has announced a boost in flights from Glasgow Airport.

The company is adding two more direct nonstop weekly flights to Toronto for next summer – giving Glasgow Airport and Scottish passengers an extra 7,000 seats to Canada.

The additional capacity will see Canadian Affair’s Glasgow to Toronto service increase to seven flights a week - up from five this summer - with fares starting from £258 return per person, including taxes.

With weekly flights also operating from Glasgow to both Calgary and to Vancouver the total capacity from Scotland for summer 2010 is now 51,500 seats.

Kathryn Munro of Canadian Affair said: “We have always been a loyal and consistent operator offering the lowest cost flights and holidays, so we are thrilled to announce this additional capacity.

"At a time when many other operators and airlines are cutting back, we are certain that this investment will be welcomed with open arms.”