NT Tourism at Risk with Cutback of Qantas, Jetstar Services

Besides Qantas aircraft maintenance engineers who were at the receiving end this week of Chief Executive Alan Joyce's ax, another victim to the announced revamp of the flag carrier would be the tourism sector in the Northern Territory.

Qantas would cut by half return flights in the Uluru-Cairns leg to only seven trips a week beginning September, while it will also halve to two from the current four flights a week in the Red Centre-Perth leg. However, by Oct 28, Qantas will suspend the service.

Jetstar also announced the reduction of flights between Sydney and Darwin to seven from the current 11 per week beginning Aug 16, and also cut trips between Darwin and Denpasar in Bali to eight from 11 a week.

Lyell Strambi, who was appointed by Mr Joyce on Tuesday as chief executive of Qantas domestic operations, explained the cut in service to the poor performance of the NT routes which he believes is due to the impact of the strong Australian currency on inbound tourism market.

While cutting services from NT, Qantas will add Boeing 737 jets to other domestic airports including in the east coast, Mr Strambi said. A similar diversion of single-aisle A320 aircraft from Darwin to the east coast will be made by Jetstar, the budget carrier of Qantas.

As early as February, Mr Joyce had informed a Senate committee that flights to Darwin and Cairns were unprofitable. On Monday, he announced the closure of Qantas's maintenance hub at Tullamarine Airport which would mean the loss of 500 jobs.

On Tuesday, he bared a major reorganization of the company by splitting operations into four - domestic, international, Jetstar and the frequent flyers programme.

At the same time, Mr Joyce committed that Qantas would contribute to the growth of Western Australia, particularly the Australian state's mining boom, by offering the services its charter airline Network Aviation which Qantas purchased in 2011.

"Within WA we are the airline that aims to give all mining and energy clients what they want and when they want it, and we have the comprehensive capacity to do just that," The West Australian quoted Mr Joyce.