Aviation bracing for impact

THE owners of Townsville Airport are bracing for a “significant impact” on flights as airlines cut services and appeal for support through fee waivers and government-backed lines of credit.

Virgin Australia yesterday joined Qantas by announcing big reductions in schedules with the emphasis on maintaining “most” routes and reducing frequencies. But exactly what the outcome will be for Townsville remains to be seen with airlines yet to detail the changes apart from Qantas saying it will cut domestic capacity “by around 60 per cent” until at least the end of May and Virgin reducing domestic capacity “by around 50 per cent” until June 14.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government advised people not to travel overseas and announced an aviation relief package.

Virgin has suspended all international flights from March 30 to June 14 and Qantas is reducing its group international capacity by around 90 per cent until the end of May.

Townsville Airport owner Queensland Airports said it would continue to follow the directions of federal and state authorities.

“These reductions to flight schedules will have a significant impact,” Queensland Airports CEO Chris Mills said.

Qantas says the route-by-route detail of its changes will be announced in coming days, while Virgin says its route and schedule detail will be published over the next week.

Regional carrier Rex called for government support to avoid a total industry collapse.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael Mccormack yesterday announced a package to refund and waive charges including aviation fuel excise, domestic Airservices charges and domestic and regional aviation security charges. The total cost of the measures are estimated to be $715 million.