NT travellers have their Christmas plans complicated after Virgin Australia cancels flights

A number of Darwin services by Virgin have been cancelled, throwing Christmas travel plans into chaos.

MANY Territory travellers may have had their Christmas holiday plans complicated after a number of Darwin services were cancelled by Virgin Australia.

Passengers travelling from the Top End were given less than a couple of days’ notice of the changes forcing them into either inconvenient or more costly alternatives.

Some people who had originally booked to arrive at their destinations ahead of Christmas have had their bookings rescheduled to after the occasion entirely.

Hannah Wright booked to go to Sydney with Virgin as soon as it was announced that the borders would be open.

However, she found out on Tuesday that her December 23 flight had been cancelled and rescheduled for December 27 with only credits offered instead of a refund.

Instead the Wrights spent an extra $600 to book a Qantas flight to arrive ahead of Christmas though they have retained their return trip through Virgin on January 9.

“I’ve been waiting all year for this and as soon as it was announced we could travel we had those flights booked,” Ms Wright said.

“It was disappointing to get that message on Tuesday morning, two days before my flight, that it had been cancelled.

“I feel really bad as it’s not my money but my parents who booked the flights for me and now these new ones. I feel bad for the families that can’t afford that.”

Two additional services have since been added including a direct flight between Darwin and Brisbane on Thursday and a direct flight between Darwin and Melbourne on Friday.

The airline has passed on an apology to all guests impacted by an impacted service to or from Darwin but was confident all guests would make their destination before Christmas Day.

“We apologise to any guest impacted by scheduled changes to our Darwin services and we are working to ensure all guests make it to their final destination before Christmas Day,” an airline spokesman said.

“The Majority of guests who have been impacted by the changes have already been moved onto alternate flights.

“We have also two additional direct flights between Darwin and Brisbane (Thursday) and Darwin and Melbourne (Friday).”