Melbourne to Sydney flights cancelled amid Victoria lockdown
When the NSW-Victoria state line shuts tonight, it will strike at the heart of one of the world’s busiest, and richest, flight paths. And it’s going to hurt.
The NSW-Victoria border shutdown strikes at the heart of one of the busiest and most lucrative air corridors in the world.
Thanks to business travellers and holiday-makers shuffling between the two capital cities, Melbourne-Sydney flights are a major domestic money-maker for Australia’s airlines.
In peak periods before COVID-19, a flight took off between Sydney and Melbourne every 15 minutes.
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That’s a lot, even on a global scale. Sydney-Melbourne was ranked the world’s second busiest flight path last year by air traffic data company OAG, with 54,102 flights tracked in the 12 months to February 2019.
It was second only to the Jeju-Seoul air corridor in South Korea, which saw more than 79,000 flights in the same period.
By virtue of that incredible demand, last year Sydney-Melbourne was named the world’s second most profitable route. OAG estimated Qantas fetched $1.23 billion from its Sydney-Melbourne flights alone in 2018/19 – a whopping $34,000 an hour.
But airlines will now cut services between Sydney and Melbourne, along with other destinations between NSW and Victoria, when the state line is shut down at midnight tonight.
Today Qantas has reduced its six scheduled flights between Melbourne and Sydney to five, and Virgin Australia has cut its two flights to one, after NSW imposed a ban on Melbourne residents overnight.
Domestic services were already depleted during the pandemic but the NSW-Victoria border shutdown is another heavy blow in a horror year for the struggling airlines.
The Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne flight path is crucial for the airlines, aviation expert Neil Hansford told news.com.au.
“It is the cornerstone of domestic aviation in Australia for passengers and freight — logically, as most commerce and government is done between Sydney and Melbourne,” he said.
Mr Hansford, chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, said the border shutdown will be a “real jolt as business travel was returning”.
“If it goes past three weeks it will have a real effect on profit projections. The impact on business travel will be major and really set back recovery,” he said.
He said the shutdown could cause Qantas to reduce its projected capacity by 40 per cent.
“Other problems are caused by Victorians already up in NSW by air (who) will want to return,” Mr Hansford said. “But there will be minimal passengers to balance the legs out of Melbourne.”
Qantas said it would operate fewer Sydney-Melbourne services after the border shutdown, although there will still be multiple flights each day.
But other routes will also be affected, such as Melbourne-Byron Bay (Ballina).
“Qantas and Jetstar are significantly reducing flights to and from Melbourne following the decision to close the NSW border,” Qantas said in a statement to news.com.au.
“We’ll continue to operate limited flights for essential travel only.”
Impacted customers will be contacted about their options.
Meanwhile, Virgin Australia will reviewing its flight schedule in light of the border closure.
“We’ll contact passengers directly if there’s any change to their flight,” the airline said in a statement, adding it would waive charges for changed bookings.
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