NT flight prices: Alice Springs woman paid almost $1k for flight to get surgery interstate

Forced to travel interstate to get the specialist care she needs, one young Alice Springs woman says she was stung almost $1k to make the flight.

Christabel Moschetti, 22, lives in Alice Springs and has endometriosis, and has had to travel to Sydney to receive treatment in the past. Picture: Gera Kazakov

Despite only having to fly fewer than three hours, one Alice Springs resident says she was stung almost $1k for a flight to get vital medical treatment interstate.

Christabel Moschetti said she recently paid “about $800” for return flights from Sydney to Alice Springs when she had to fly to the NSW capital to get treatment for her endometriosis.

Ms Moschetti said she flew with Qantas and had booked the flights about a month and half out from her surgery.

She is one of the estimated 2000 women who live with endometriosis in Alice Springs, according to Endometriosis Australia, with the charity estimating 16,400 women in the NT have the condition.

Christabel Moschetti, 22, lives in Alice Springs and has endometriosis, and has paid almost $1000 travel to Sydney to receive treatment in the past. Picture: Gera Kazakov

“It’s very stressful because I didn’t have an option to just not get the medical attention that I needed,” Ms Moschetti said.

“So it’s just really stressful, especially because (endometriosis) already has a lot of cost associated with it with surgeries and medications and specialist appointments.

“And so having to then also deal with that extra cost of flights, which is like almost a thousand dollars – it’s just really stressful.”

When queried on how they set their prices for their regional routes, a Qantas spokesperson directed this publication to Qantas’ resident fare program.

The program provides a 20 per cent discount “off the Qantas-controlled component of all-inclusive return fares” for “eligible residents”, a Qantas web page spruiking the fares states.

The tail of a QANTAS plane. Picture David Clark

But to Ms Moschetti, the scheme “does nothing”.

“I had a look because flights to Darwin from Alice are roughly the same price (as flights to) Sydney,” she said.

Ms Moschetti said with the 20 per cent discount applied, “it doesn’t end up being that much of a discount”.

“It’s still really expensive to get out of Alice by plane,” she said.

Currently Qantas, Airnorth, and Virgin fly out of Alice Springs to various cities across Australia – such as Airnorth’s newly announced route to Cairns.

The Northern Territory Government estimates 33,000 people live in the town, which is serviced by one airport.

Originally published as NT flight prices: Alice Springs woman paid almost $1k for flight to get surgery interstate