Virgin Australia is to suspend all scheduled flights from tomorrow (Friday April 10), with the exception of its key service between Sydney and Melbourne.
The carrier had already cut domestic services by 90 per cent due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis, but had continued to operate 17 routes from Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
Almost all of these will now been suspended, leaving just a daily (except for Saturday) service between the capitals of the Australian states of New South Wales and Victoria.
All of the airline’s international services had already been suspended until mid-June – a date for the resumption of the suspended domestic routes has not been given.
In a statement the carrier said:
“The Virgin Australia Group continues to monitor passenger demand and has made further adjustments to its flying schedule. Demand for travel has continued to decline with border restrictions and the need for people to stay home due to social distancing measures.
“The Group will continue to operate a daily service between Melbourne and Sydney, except Saturday, but will temporarily suspend other passenger flying from Friday April 10, 2020 while restrictions remain in place.
“We continue to support the Australian Government with flights between Los Angeles and Hong Kong to help bring Australians home and maintain important freight links in and out of the country.
“Demand for charter services in the resources sector remains strong and we continue to support our customers with services. We also remain open to charter opportunities or any flying the Australian Government needs support with.
“Our flight schedule is available at virg.in/travelalerts and customers can visit virg.in/covid or phone the Guest Contact Centre for their options.
“We stand ready to support Australians flying to their destinations again when travel restrictions ease.”