{"id":759128,"date":"2026-06-25T10:17:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:17:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759128\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:17:14","slug":"qantas-axes-alice-springs-melbourne-route-restricts-flights-between-darwin-and-singapore-to-peak-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/759128\/","title":{"rendered":"Qantas axes Alice Springs-Melbourne route, restricts flights between Darwin and Singapore to peak season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Qantas will suspend direct flights between Alice Springs and Melbourne indefinitely and restrict its Darwin-Singapore service to “peak periods only”, pausing the route between late October and June 2027, citing “falling demand and rising costs”.<\/p>\n

In a statement announcing the changes, the airline’s domestic chief executive Markus Svensson said Alice Springs customers would still be able to fly to Melbourne via stopovers in Sydney and Adelaide.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately we\u2019ve had to make the difficult decision to indefinitely suspend our Alice Springs-Melbourne service and we apologise to customers,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know how much people value these direct connections, however falling demand and rising costs mean the service is no longer viable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe same pressures have led us to reduce Darwin-Singapore flying to peak periods and we don\u2019t take either decision lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Qantas flights between Darwin and Singapore will be restricted to the peak tourist season, with the airline announcing a pause between October and June. (ABC News: Michael Franchi)<\/p>\n

Mr Svensson said Qantas had “put one of our newest and most efficient aircraft” on the Alice Springs-Melbourne route six months ago but the move, along with sale prices as low as $199 one way, had failed to stimulate demand.<\/p>\n

“Unfortunately it has underperformed,” he said.<\/p>\n

Instead, the airline will add a Saturday service between Alice Springs and Sydney, increasing the number of flights between the two locations from six days a week to seven.<\/p>\n

A billion-dollar-a-year business<\/p>\n

Darwin-based aviation analyst Bruce Dale said it was “very sad” to see the Alice Springs-Melbourne route cancelled after “many decades”.<\/p>\n

“At the same time, the challenges of economic flying within the Territory effects all airlines, not just Qantas, so on that hand I can understand why Qantas would have made this difficult decision,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They had reduced to a very modern fuel-efficient aircraft, the A220, which is smaller and better suited to the\u00a0market \u2014 that normally helps \u2014 but unfortunately it might not have been enough to save the route.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dale said while there might be room for governments to step in when routes became uneconomical for airlines, “we also have to be realistic about the cost of flying airline services to the Territory”.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Bruce Dale says he’s “personally gutted” by the cuts but “I understand the reasons why”. (ABC News: Mike Donnelly)<\/p>\n

“By my estimate, the cost of every single flight to and from the Territory, and the intra-territory services, cost the airlines about $1 billion a year \u2014 it’s big business,” he said.<\/p>\n

“So if you have flights going half full, it\u2019s actually costing the airlines tens of thousands, potentially even a million dollars, over the course of a year.<\/p>\n

“So that balance between what is a reasonable expectation for a private enterprise to carry versus is there government support, and how much government support could actually make a difference, if we\u2019re talking about\u00a0a billion-dollar-a-year business.”<\/p>\n

Mr Dale said he was “personally gutted” by Qantas’ decision to restrict flights between Darwin and Singapore to the peak tourist season but other airlines were still flying the route year-round.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got family in the UK I need to care for, so I’m a semi-regular traveller on that flight, but again I understand the reasons why,” he said.<\/p>\n

“The challenge of attracting visitors to the Territory in the low season is a perennial one and that will need a whole-of-territory response.”<\/p>\n

Tourism Central Australia chief executive Danial Rochford said the news was devastating for an industry already struggling due to cost-of-living pressures and the war in Iran.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Danial Rochford says Qantas’ decision is another blow in what has already been a difficult year for the industry. (ABC News:\u00a0Xavier Martin\u00a0)<\/p>\n

“This service is such a critical component of not only the tourism industry, to be able to get tourists in and out of the region, but also for the livability of the town \u2014 so on both circumstances, this is devastating news,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We of course can get routed through Sydney and Adelaide, but the loss of that direct service is certainly devastating.<\/p>\n

“It’s been a very difficult year for tourism already, but we were seeing some green buds of optimism until today.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Qantas will suspend direct flights between Alice Springs and Melbourne indefinitely and restrict its Darwin-Singapore service to “peak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":759129,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[362819,362820,64,63,99,197693,362821,37630,197691,362818,3861,362822,3862],"class_list":["post-759128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alice-springs-flights","tag-alice-springs-melbourne","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-darwin-flights","tag-darwin-singapore-flights","tag-flights","tag-nt-flights","tag-nt-qantas-flights","tag-qantas","tag-qantas-flight-cuts","tag-qantas-flights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759128","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=759128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/759128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/759129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=759128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=759128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=759128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}