Airline apologises for cancelling a popular Darwin route

A leading airline into Darwin has apologised for cancelling a popular domestic route as a new service prepares to fly in. Read what’s happened.

Virgin Australia has apologised to Top End residents for scrapping its Sydney-Darwin service.

The apology came as the airline defends cuts to its Territory services which has seen a 66 per cent decline in Virgin flights to Darwin on pre-covid figures.

Virgin withdrew the popular Sydney-Darwin service in January 2023.

In a statement, Virgin Australia said the airline had increased flights between Darwin, Brisbane and Melbourne during the most recent school holidays to support increased demand.

The airline said the Brisbane-Darwin route increased from nine to 11 services per week between June 12 and July 9 and the Melbourne-Darwin run increased from daily to 12 services a week from June 19 to July 16.

The airline said its “published capacity” on the Brisbane-Darwin route in July was at 114 per cent of pre-covid levels while the Melbourne-Darwin route was at 128 per cent over the same period.

Fewer Virgin Australia flights are landing at Darwin Airport since Covid-19. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

In its reply to a number of questions from this masthead, Virgin Australia did not deny the airline overall was 66 per cent down on its pre-Covid flights.

“Virgin Australia did make a difficult decision to suspend Sydney-Darwin services, which followed a detailed review into the route,” the statement said.

“To ensure we can deliver a reliable on-time operation and in light of the continued high-cost environment, the route is not commercially viable for the time being. We sincerely apologise to our guests for any inconvenience and we will continue to reassess opportunities as circumstances change.”

Territorians looking to book short turnover fares are currently paying the most in the country to travel domestically.

Jetstar flights to Melbourne in the first week of August are all priced over $450 and most Virgin flights are in a similar time frame with some priced well above $500.

Nexus Airlines will land its first flight in Darwin on Friday.

In addition, Jetstar has cancelled flights from Darwin to Denpasar between October 9 and November 8 as a result of runway upgrades by Defence.

A Darwin airport spokesperson confirmed the airport is still waiting for Defence to release its method of works program that will allow airlines to schedule flights with certainty.

But there is a glimmer of hope amid the domestic aviation gloom.

New regional carrier Nexus Airlines will launch its first flights into Darwin on Friday.

Nexus was announced last May when Kununurra-based regional freight-forwarder Aviair broadened its operation to include commercial passenger flights.

The airline will operate with a fleet of five de Havilland next generation Dash 8 Q400 aircraft and operate regional routes mainly through Western Australia.

The airline is being funded with a mix of private and public capital including a $4.05m contribution from the Western Australian government.

For plane spotters, the inaugural Nexus flight into Darwin departs Broome at 8.35am and stops at Kununurra before arriving in Darwin at 11.45am.