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Qantas is dropping services between Alice Springs and Melbourne, and paring back its Darwin-Singapore route, citing rising costs and low demand.
The Flying Kangaroo will indefinitely suspend the Alice Springs-Melbourne route, which currently operates four times per week using the A220-300 fleet, with some flights operating less than half full. Darwin-Singapore will also move to services during peak periods only.
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“Unfortunately, we’ve had to make the difficult decision to indefinitely suspend our Alice Springs-Melbourne service, and we apologise to customers,” said Qantas Domestic CEO Markus Svensson.
“We know how much people value these direct connections, however falling demand and rising costs mean the service is no longer viable. Customers will still be able to access Melbourne by connecting through Sydney and Adelaide.
“We put one of our newest and most efficient aircraft on the route six months ago and put it on sale several times to stimulate demand, but unfortunately it has underperformed.
“The same pressures have led us to reduce Darwin-Singapore flying to peak periods and we don’t take either decision lightly.”
Melbourne passengers will now have to connect through other cities such as Sydney or Adelaide to travel to and from Alice Springs, with Qantas set to introduce a seventh weekly flight from Sydney starting in November.
Darwin-Singapore will be paused from 25 October, resuming on 12 June next year and running until 21 August. Despite a number of sales and promotions, Australian Aviation understands that Qantas’ efforts to drive up demand on both routes have been largely unsuccessful.
The news follows Qantas’ low-cost arm Jetstar announcing the axing of two trans-Tasman services and the reshuffling of capacity between Australia and New Zealand.
Sunshine Coast to Auckland and Cairns to Christchurch will be put on ice indefinitely from 24 October, as the routes are no longer commercially viable and operating costs have increased. The low-cost carrier will, however, resume Sydney–Christchurch from 26 October.
“While we have made some difficult decisions on specific routes in response to low passenger numbers and challenging market conditions, our commitment to Queensland – and to making air travel affordable for Queenslanders – has never been stronger,” a Jetstar spokesperson said.
Jetstar also cited “lower-than-expected demand” and “significant rise in operating costs, including fuel” for its decision to drop the two routes.
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