Nexus halted the route in August.<\/a><\/p>\nThis week, following an ABC enquiry into flight costs, Airnorth announced a $429 return fare for Kimberley residents flying between Broome and Kununurra.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/3029b19f5fd127a02ff5ad13115a6978.jpeg\")
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Airnorth has a monopoly on the Broome-Kununurra-Darwin route. (Supplied: Airnorth)<\/p>\n
Airnorth general manager Julian Barry said the airline wanted to boost traffic in the region, but fares also had to be financially viable.<\/p>\n
“We want to see residents be able to travel as frequently as they need to at a reasonable price and we want to encourage trade with businesses,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We do have dynamic pricing because we have to have a sustainable product that’s here to stay.”<\/p>\n
Because passengers have to book 30 days in advance to enjoy the discount, Ms Bell said the cap was disappointing.<\/p>\n
“I’m quite sceptical about how that’s actually going to look for people who do need to utilise it for legitimate family or health reasons moving forward,” she said.<\/p>\n
The price of remoteness<\/p>\n
Megan McGrath, who works with at-risk girls, moved to Kununurra from Victoria a few years ago. She said the high cost of flights, which she said could often be cancelled or delayed, had left her family of four feeling isolated.<\/p>\n
“My grandma was going into hospital with a suspected stroke. I looked at flights to get back and it was going to be $3,000 to get to Melbourne,” Ms McGrath said.<\/p>\n
![\"Entrance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/363bc5ae3ca098458ebb9f4e138c8cf8.jpeg\")
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The East Kimberley Regional Airport in Kununurra. (ABC Kimberley: Rebecca Nadge)<\/p>\n
In an attempt to cut costs, the McGraths and other residents have taken to driving more than 800 kilometres to Darwin on roads that are often flooded during the wet season.<\/p>\n
“It’s putting residents at risk, doing that frequently, but it’s kind of left us with no option,” Ms McGrath said.<\/p>\n
The family is considering whether it is worth staying in the Kimberley, which has historically struggled to retain long-term residents from outside the region.<\/p>\n
“If they want people to stay, build rapport and actually have an impact, they need to look at how they can enable that and help people to feel like they’re not having to make a choice between staying here and their family,” Ms McGrath said.<\/p>\n
Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley President David Menzel said air travel and affordable airfares were essential.<\/p>\n
![\"White](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/ad6b5ac4491fa608a3e923f45c5606e4.jpeg\")
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David Menzel says reliable and affordable flights are key to ensure livability. (ABC Kimberley: Giulia Bertoglio)<\/p>\n
“Availability of reasonably priced fares we see as ultimately necessary for the livability of Kimberley residents,” he said.<\/p>\n
The WA government has extended a scheme to cap airfares for regional residents until 2031.<\/p>\n
Last year, state Transport Minister Rita Saffioti said the government had held talks with Nexus in relation to the regulation of flight prices in the north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The only airline operating between Western Australia’s remote Kimberley towns of Broome and Kununurra has begun offering cheaper…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[185170,37622,64,63,24513,99,5249,37630,22561,37626,37623,187309,37627,37624],"class_list":{"0":"post-507038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-airfares","9":"tag-airnorth","10":"tag-au","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-broome","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-darwin","15":"tag-flights","16":"tag-kimberley","17":"tag-kununurra","18":"tag-nexus","19":"tag-regional-airfares","20":"tag-regional-flights","21":"tag-remote-flights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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