Budget carrier Jetstar has decided to reduce the frequency of its service flights between Darwin and Singapore and business leaders in the Northern Territory appears less than amused with the surprise move made by the airline.

At present, Jetstar maintains twice daily flights in the service destinations and cancelling one of the two evening flights beginning in December came as a surprise for the Northern Territory Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber of Commerce representative Chris Young expressed puzzlement when Jetstar announced its decision to nix one of its flights between the Australian city and Singapore, claiming that the two flight schedules have become popular with many frequent travellers.

Mr Young said on Tuesday that the 7PM flight out of Darwin has been utilised by many passengers as a springboard flight on their way to various destinations in Asia and Europe, citing the schedule's perfect fit for night flyers.

Darwin could bear the loss of an extra flight and adjust on the decision of the low-fare airline but Mr Young pointed out that Jetstar should have opted to cancel the later 9PM flights if the company thinks that the decision was indeed necessary.

He bemoaned that "the 9PM will make it a little tighter and a little more difficult for people with ongoing connections, and yet that's the flight that's going to be retained."

The NT's Chamber of Commerce also feared that the latest Jetstar move could negatively impact on air freights set to fly out of Darwin, arguing that "the fruit, the vegetables, the seafood are going to become real issues because those are usually just in time type cargoes that need to travel within a very short time-frame."

However, Jetstar representative Simon Westaway had indicated that the company's decision would stick for now but it may not be permanent as he reasoned that the move was based on the airline's plan of diversifying its service flights out of Darwin.

Mr Westaway hinted that the twice daily flights could possibly return and Jetstar could definitely make some new arrangements "if demand is high and the strength of the market is there," as he added that the budget carrier has the extra capacity for more flights out of Australia and into Singapore.