Coronavirus: Top route back, ‘every flight full’

Australia’s coronavirus-ravaged aviat­ion industry is finally getting off its knees, with flying now at about 50 per cent of last year’s capacit­y, and climbing.

Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka is delighted to see their planes full again after a difficult year. Picture: Britta Campion

Australia’s coronavirus-ravaged aviat­ion industry is finally getting off its knees, with flying now at about 50 per cent of last year’s capacit­y, and climbing.

In the space of a few short weeks, commercial flights within Australia have exploded in ­number in response to state border reopenings and the huge pent-up demand for interstate travel.

Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said it was great to see the country on the move again, with more flights likely to be scheduled as confidence returned.

“It takes a little while to shed the anxiety after living under rocks and hiding out in our houses,” Ms Hrdlicka said. “As you start to get back out, it feels great.

“In the last 10 days I’ve had three flights, and every flight is full. About half the aircraft is businesspeople, everyone’s smiling and happy to be back.”

After losing its crown to intrastate routes such as Brisbane-Cairns and Perth-Broome at the height of the COVID-19 crisis, the Melbourne-Sydney route has regained­ its title of Australia’s busiest­ air route.

This week, Qantas and Virgin Australia will operate 162 return flights a week between Australia’s biggest cities, compared with just 16 prior to November 23.

But there is still a long way to go to reach the sort of capacity on that route a year ago, when a total of 387 return services were scheduled by those airlines each week.

On the Sydney-Brisbane run, 120 return flights are operating, up from 31 two weeks ago, and Jetstar is flying 44 return services between­ Melbourne and the Gold Coast, almost back to December 2019 figures, of 51 flights a week.

The reopening of West Aust­ralian borders has also triggered a flight scheduling stampede.

In coming weeks, Qantas and Virgin Australia will operate 45 ­return services a week from Perth to Sydney, a 500 per cent increase on last week, and just over half the capacity of last December.

With international travel still off the cards, Ms Hrdlicka said domestic flights were all anyone cared about, and passengers would reap the benefits. “It’s going to be super competitive because we’re all rebuilding the market,” she told the CAPA Centre for Aviation on Wednesday.

 

“It will never have been cheaper to travel in this country and that’s great because it gets everybody back flying … who knows, we might even grow the total market.”

As flights were reinstated in significa­nt numbers, tourism operat­ors were finally seeing the light at the end of a very dim year.

“The airlines said they would respond once the borders reopened, and it’s positive to see the major carriers backing in what they see as increased confidence in domestic travel,” said Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway.

“It’s an important step in terms of our interstate tourism market, which is overwhelmingly driven by air travel.”

His only concern was whether the current demand would ease when the holiday period ended, and the novelty of being able to travel interstate wore off.

“The true test will be what the second quarter of 2021 looks like,” said Mr Westaway.

“The jury’s still out on what business travel will look like, when the holiday season ends and governmen­t incentives come off.”

For Rydges Gold Coast Airport Hotel, the reversal in fortunes could not be more stark. After opening in mid-October when Queensland borders were still closed to Victoria and Sydney, the hotel has had its occupancy rate surge 150 per cent in recent weeks.

Eight extra staff have been employed­, and manager Luke Harley said it was exciting that “the phones were ringing and bookings were rolling in”. “The place has really come to life in the past couple of weeks,” he said.