Qantas chops services and aircraft to Tassie and South Australia
Qantas Group General Manager Regional Airlines Narendra Kumar announced today that the airline would be ceasing operations to its two South Australian ports, Kangaroo Island and Port Lincoln, on 28 June and to Burnie in Tasmania on 31 July.
In addition Mr Kumar announced that Qantas will replace the daily Qantas B737 Launceston to Melbourne service with double daily Dash 8 services on 1 August, but will maintain Jetstar’s twenty one A320 jet return services a week between Launceston and Melbourne.
The result of a review of the regional QantasLink network, Mr Kumar said, “The Qantas Group operates more than two million seats a year in and out of Tasmania, and more than 600,000 of them fly empty.”
He added, “Passenger numbers on the Burnie route have dropped by 20% over the past two years and loads on Qantas B737 Launceston services have declined to below 60%”. “In the current environment of escalating fuel prices, we cannot continue to absorb losses on these routes”.
“Moving to double daily Dash 8 frequencies between Launceston and Melbourne will address the issue of excess capacity on the route and at the same time offer passengers better connections in Melbourne”.
Mr Kumar added, “Jetstar would continue to operate daily non-stop Launceston-Sydney service and three non-stop services between Brisbane and Launceston each week using its 177- seat A320 aircraft, with the group providing more than 12,100 seats in and out of Launceston each week and Tasmania’s capacity is 7% higher than it was two years ago.”
Mr Kumar said that in South Australia, Port Lincoln loads had averaged only 45% per cent over the past two months, with Kangaroo Island services to Adelaide averaging 40% and Kangaroo Island-Melbourne services only 25%.
Mr Kumar said QantasLink would increase its turboprop capacity in regional Australia by 19% in 2006/07, with plans to expand services to a range of destinations including, Dubbo, Tamworth and Port Macquarie in New South Wales, Longreach, Charleville and Roma in Queensland and Mildura in Victoria.
Report by The Mole
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