Virgin Australia has cancelled nearly one-in-four of its flights scheduled for January and February as the Omicron variant continues to impact crew availability and hinder travel demand.
The airline said it will achieve the reduction by temporarily suspending ten routes and limiting the frequency of some busier flights as it deals with staff who have been forced into isolation due to COVID close contact rules and staff catching COVID themselves.
“Virgin Australia is dedicated to the communities that we serve and will resume these flights as soon as possible,” Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka said.
“Although we don’t know when this wave will pass, we do know that as we make the shift to living with COVID-19 there will continue to be changes in all our lives.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to any guest impacted by the changes to our flight schedule during this time,” said Hrdlicka.
Virgin Australia said that it welcomed changes by governments on isolation policies for workers in critical industries and wants the government to extend this support to essential workers in the aviation industry.
The airline said that in cases where guests have been impacted they will be accommodated to an alternative Virgin Australia service.
The cut airline list includes Virgin Australia’s only international route, Sydney-Fiji.
The full list of suspended routes include:
Adelaide – Darwin
Adelaide – Cairns
Adelaide – Sunshine Coast
Coffs Harbour – Melbourne
Hamilton Island – Melbourne
Sydney – Townsville
Melbourne – Townsville
Gold Coast – Launceston
Gold Coast – Hobart
Sydney – Fiji
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