Qantas canceling MEL/SYD/BNE - KTA direct flights?

[Pilotdude09]

Hi guys,

Interesting rumour going around town here at the moment that Qantas is canceling the 4 weekly direct flights between MEL (1), SYD (1), BNE (2) and Karratha.

Got a few of these bookings coming up over Xmas etc and was wondering if anyone ie. Red Roo can confirm as I called service desk and they said they couldn't confirm or deny but company's have been told it's temporary but travel agents told it's permanent??? Nothing in QF website to confirm either

So who knows but will certainly effect a few people if true!!

 

[Happy Trails]

Hi guys,

Interesting rumour going around town here at the moment that Qantas is canceling the 4 weekly direct flights between MEL (1), SYD (1), BNE (2) and Karratha.

Got a few of these bookings coming up over Xmas etc and was wondering if anyone ie. Red Roo can confirm as I called service desk and they said they couldn't confirm or deny but company's have been told it's temporary but travel agents told it's permanent??? Nothing in QF website to confirm either

So who knows but will certainly effect a few people if true!!

Yes, I received an email this morning from the company travel person.
At present it seems it's only July's flights that have disappeared, they're back on in August, so I'm hoping it's a glitch.

 

[Pilotdude09]

Very strange, people booked between 1st July and 1st October have had emails and changes to itin's but after that it seems to be bookable and no changes so who knows whats going on!

 

[codash1099]

Very strange, people booked between 1st July and 1st October have had emails and changes to itin's but after that it seems to be bookable and no changes so who knows whats going on!

Certainly not Qantas!!

 

[11sjw]

Doesn't surprise me with a scaling back of mining related construction and Rio Tinto having moved most of their flights to Virgin surely the demand would've dropped.

 

[Airbourne]

I have searched all flights through to 12/05/15 for BNE-KTA return and the last direct flight is the 24th June. As from the 1/07/14 there are no more direct flights. Its a shame but i have had my concerns seeing that the only time it was ever full was over the christmas holidays.

 

[Pilotdude09]

So the rumour goes Qantas has cancelled all 4 east coast services from July 1 and Also Adelaide-Kal flights have been canned. 9 weeks PER-KTA-PER flights canned and a massive reduction of 737 services!

Disappointing, the company's must have pulled out of booking blocks of seats. Thats what kept it going.....can only hope this Anketell port goes ahead, only chance of getting them back.

Will be interesting to see if Port Hedland keeps theirs

Quite funny though as it's not booming but it's still steady up here but I guess unless the new port goes ahead there just isn't the demand for the FIFO flights and Virgin is operating 4 PER-KTA flights a day some days too but their flight went out with 6 people on a 737 the other day so will see how long that lasts!

Can only hope Virgin comes in and even does one flight to the east coast a week, a total PITA having to go via Perth some times.

 

[roncritch]

Wow just looked at new timetable for KTA. Too many Qantaslink flights taking over the 737 slots. (and less flights) I hate the Qantaslink as its a real PITA catching the bus to and from the terminal. No business class in our 717's!

 

[MarcB]

ABC confirms end of KTA flights...

Qantas axes direct interstate flights from Karratha - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[Happy Trails]

And as usual we are informed via stealth schedule changes and internet rumour, rather than an up-front announcement from QF.

 

[roncritch]

And as usual we are informed via stealth schedule changes and internet rumour, rather than an up-front announcement from QF.

Yes no media statement on their site over this...must have not been able to come up with any spin on it.

 

[danny09]

They also cancelled the KGI-ADL flights too. I havent seen any PHE changes as yet, but with roy hill, flights in hedland are still pretty full.

 

[Pilotdude09]

Yep they haven't even had the common courtesy to advise me my xmas eve flight to Brisane is now cancelled via email/txt at least.

I booked Red E Deals so hopefully they will give me a full refund rather than a credit as only booked the flight last week and now its cancelled. Qantas is starting to really crap me off, constant flight time changes I've had a flight moved 5 times between KTA and PER before and the number of flights they have cancelled is unreal.

But be interesting to see if they fully refund me or not........i'm not hopeful! Certianly not doing 10hrs of travel on xmas eve in cattle class haha will use points to book J for me and the Mrs before the ASA's go!

 

[mannej]

There is information on theqantassource regarding to this.


There doesn't seem to be any info on the QF Industry site though.

 

[Happy Trails]

Now they've added an extra 15 minutes to QF577's (SYD-PER) journey time so that it no longer meets MCT for the last PER-KTA flight of the day. So add another couple of hours to the trip from SYD.

 

[macrop]

Will be interesting to see if Port Hedland keeps theirs

Yeah - I'm wondering myself how Roy Hill is going to handle their workers at their new port (and rail yard) in Port Hedland. FIFO or Resi or a combo. I don't think there will be enough permanent employees to support (more) instrastate flights.

As for these intrastate flights from KTA - the nail was in the coffin about this time last year when Rio canned their national FIFO scheme (for new employees) and increased their alliance with Virgin. A few of my colleagues where getting worried about being pushed out as well (HR were pushing hard to scale back existing national FIFOs).

Virgin are charging less than half than what Qantas is/was out of ZNE and KTA to PER for a fully flex. If BHP jump ship as well - QF will be crapping themselves. The Perth FIFO flights were/are a total money pit for QF. Seriously though charging $600 each way for a PER-KTA flight for such a huge customer and expecting it to last when a competitor is charging much less is madness.

 

[Pilotdude09]

Yeah national FIFO was a bit of a nail in the coffin and i know from our area there was only a few guys who took advantage but be interesting to see what happens as guys to Cairns and Regional areas apparently can't make connecting flights from BNE now. The MEL/SYD flights used to be full in the height of construction but they would have been costing Qantas money in the end but the Wednesday Brissy flight was always chockers, speaking to the FIFO guys there was barely ever seats left so who knows.

Rio has slowly started putting quite a few people back on Qantas lately, from what we were told it was to even out the business between the 2 airlines as there is now some minimal price difference between the flights compared to what their was. When I was flying to Perth weekly I know our fares that were being booked were $900 each way, that was a couple of years ago but thats just pure price gouging.

I rang Qantas yesterday and had an excellent agent who knew about the cancellation but it's still showing in the system as operating so they can rebook me but can't refund me until it's officially announced by Qantas and removed from the system, but it's still pretty piss poor finding out on Facebook/Qantas Source/ABC all prior to anything official from Qantas.

Virgin has really upped their game too, they may even try and make a case for at least 1 over East flight a week even 1 to Brisbane would give them an upper hand. Karratha Airport redevlopment starts in June and I know the shire/council has been trying to woo Virgin into a Phuket/Bali flight so be interesting to see what happens there. Compared to when Virgin started here their flight times are much better and service is 100000x better. Just the frequency thats a let down.

It's funny though people whinge and moan about the FIFO workers but ultimately they are the ones that give us the flights albeit at ludicrous prices. Quite often it can be $798 to fly to Perth ONE WAY some days, Tuesday and Wednesdays will be through the roof again no doubt as more people fly via Perth again. Lucky for competition we have Virgin and Alliance to offer cheap seats!

It's funny a few years ago Qantas was even going to offer a tag on flight from Exmouth - Perth-Learmonth-Karratha-Learmonth-Perth but it's never come to fruition.

 

[YSSY]

On the bright side, it means more miles/tier credits when flying from Sydney to Karratha....

 

[macrop]

Karratha Airport redevlopment starts in June and I know the shire/council has been trying to woo Virgin into a Phuket/Bali flight so be interesting to see what happens there. Compared to when Virgin started here their flight times are much better and service is 100000x better. Just the frequency thats a let down.

Good to see the airport upgrade finally going ahead, it is certainly needed as not much has changed over it's life other than a minor expansion in the late 90's. I still remember going to the 'big' opening in the 80's as a kid - got a few hours away from school anyway.

International flights (finally) to Bali/Phuket would be excellent. I flew out of Hedland on Saturday and the airport was very busy as many were heading to Bali later in the morning. Virgin could perhaps look at another destination at KTA other than Bali perhaps Phuket like you mention. I would happily drive the 2.5 hours from PHE to KTA airport or vice versa as i'm sure many others would. Choice is a great option.