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Qantas to serve Kangaroo Island following airport upgrade

written by australianaviation.com.au | June 5, 2017

A QantasLink Q400 aircraft. (Qantas)
QantasLink will operate the 74-seat Q400 on direct Melbourne-Kangaroo Island flights during summer.

A $17 million airport upgrade will allow QantasLink to begin flights to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island from December, with year round services from Adelaide and summer seasonal flights to Melbourne.

The Qantas regional airline subsidiary will begin three times weekly Adelaide-Kingscote flights on December 4, with frequencies on the route increasing to five times weekly for the peak summer period through to Easter. Three times weekly Melbourne-Kingscote flights commence on December 17, and will operate through to the end of January.

Flights from Adelaide will be operated by 50-seat Dash 8 Q300 turboprops, while the Melbourne flights will be operated by larger 74-seat Dash 8 Q400s.

QantasLink flew a Q300 to Kangaroo Island on Monday to mark the announcement, which will see the Qantas regional subsidiary return to the popular tourism island after a decade plus absence.

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Regional Express currently operates to Kangaroo Island up to three times daily with its 34-seat Saab 340s.

Qantas says the new services will be possible thanks to “more efficient” utilisation of QantasLink’s Dash 8 fleet.

Kingscote will become QantasLink’s the 55th destination, including its fourth in South Australia destination after Adelaide, Port Lincoln and Whyalla.

The upgrades to Kingscote Airport comprise runway extensions and a new terminal building capable of handling security screening. The project is jointly funded by the South Australian and Federal governments, and is due to be completed in November.

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Comments (5)

  • Arkair

    says:

    Don’t think this one flight mid morning 5 days per week is going to be too successful! People on Kangaroo Island ned same day return to Adelaide with time for appointments, meetings etc. Similarly passengers to kangaroo island will be tourists on day trips or business people. Need at least morning and evening flights each day. Considering its a very short flight cant see why they arent doing this. Melbourne to Kangaroo island should allow for weekend holiday makers with fri evening ex Melbourne and sun evening ex kangaroo island. Still great to see more services to regional Australia!

  • David

    says:

    The ADL flights to KI don’t allow easy connections from other mainland capitals coming in, but do going out. Hopefully in time second, and later service will commence..

  • Harrison

    says:

    Qantas Fly Melbourne To Abury

  • franz chong

    says:

    not a bad idea.the schedules while not offering as much frequency as REX have to be better for the Adelaide Market than the other alternative of a crack of dawn coach to cape jervis from the city and getting the ferry across on the way over but coming home REX is your only realistic option if mid mornings are not for you or the ferry/coach to maximise the time there isn’t your thing.

  • Bill Heron

    says:

    Security screening will be required fir the Q400 services from Melbourne. That will represent a huge expense for 6 weeks of services only or a total of 18 return flights! Who will be asked to foot that bill…bet you it wont be Qantas! Both the Q300 and the Saab 340 cpme in under the 20tonne weight restriction that would mandate security screening. After just under 2yrs of Q400 services to Port Lincoln Qlink downsized to the Q300 leaving the District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula the $1m bill for all the security screening equipment which was mothballed.

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