Cyclone Debbie a bonus for international airlines

[Melburnian1]

With HTI set to be closed as an airport until June 2017 and much accommodation unavailable in the Whitsundays area of Queensland due to huge damage from Cyclone Debbie, on balance there may be a net benefit to international airlines operating in and out of Australia.

Foreigners who booked to stay in Whitsundays may transfer (if they can find accommodation) to north Queensland.

There will be some cancellations of air travel from foreigners, including domestic sectors.

However, what Debbie may also cause is many Australian residents deciding to give Queensland the 'big miss' for an Easter or April/ July school holiday break and (if they can afford it) instead book to go to an overseas beach destination such as Bali, Philippines, coughet and so on or to elsewhere in Asia such as Hong Kong or boring Singapore.

Of course, unavailability of air travel refunds domestically may complicate this but my hypothesis is that for domestic travellers, even CNS will be avoided as a substitute because in the wake of Cyclone Debbie, accommodation prices may rise and hence southeast Asia becomes a better proposition.

So perhaps on balance VA's announcement of Melbourne - Hong Kong flights from 5 July 2017 will receive a bit of a bookings boost from this unexpected trail of destruction.

 

[harvyk]

Two weeks out from Easter? I doubt many people at all would consider SE Asia an alternate to Whitsundays / N. Qld esp for the Easter holidays.
My guess is all that having HTI closed will do is move people onto boats.

As the media have said, they are used to cyclones up there. They will already have contingencies in place.

 

[lovetravellingoz]

With HTI set to be closed as an airport until June 2017.

Whitsunday Coast Airport (Proserpine) PPP, which is the airport I normally fly into the Whitsundays via and including this June, will probably have more flights switched to it then.

I am glad I booked a while back at deep discounts as prices will probably go up now.

I have flown in for holidays there about a dozen times and have only used HTI the once.

I also flew in via McKay Airport MKY once so that I could visit the stunning Cape Hillsborough National Park before going sailing.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Article here about HTI's pain and Mooloolaba's gain. Cyclone Debbie’s impact on tourism – Travel Weekly

In the short term I'd expect all sorts of loopy cancellations. 'Cyclone in Australia, we better not go there'. Spent Debbie in a resort (ok caravan park ) in Woodgate, 900 km from Bowen, that was almost empty. Managers philosophical about all the cancellations.

Doubt any impact on air travel would be positive overall.

cheers skip

 

[Melburnian1]

Some of this may be a beat up, and one uninformed traveller (Kirra) who only allegedly knew about the cyclone when she was on her way should blame herself for not knowing, but the airlines are coping a bucketing:

Tigerair, Virgin Australia: Are there flights from Hamilton Island and Proserpine to Sydney and Melbourne?