Hobart to Canberra direct flights announced

[jakeseven7]

Exactly. He’s playing it politically safe. The bulk of Tasmanians support his approach and his popularity levels have skyrocketed. Of course, it can’t stay that way. It’s one thing to close over winter and spring, but closed borders over summer will cripple us. I hope these flights go ahead as planned.

20% of Tasmanians are directly employed by tourism, so add all the people indirectly up and downstream this number will be even larger.

These flights will be interesting but doubt they will last long if even launch (just be pragmatic) and won't make a dent in anything meaningful for Tas anyway.

 

[Pug1]

Fingers crossed for our APT Tassie tour and cruise to go ahead next Feb. We're in Canberra and would love the direct flights if possible. We have to fly into Launceston and out of Hobart and I did check the Link flights, which are on Thur/Fri/Sun/Mon, and as another post says it is 2 hour flight

 

[JSavill]

End of November has been the target for a few months now and I think ACT, WA, SA, NT are being brought forward to end of October. Can’t be to careful y’know?

not sure where you got that idea - WA certainly isnt opening up at the end of this month, unlikely before the end of the year

 

[jakeseven7]

not sure where you got that idea - WA certainly isnt opening up at the end of this month, unlikely before the end of the year

Think we can write WA off completely until after their election unfortunately, the Premier is not listening to any medical advice anymore.

 

[JSavill]

Think we can write WA off completely until after their election unfortunately, the Premier is not listening to any medical advice anymore.

Personally I dont care, enjoying the safety of our state at the moment - off up north to Karijini on Friday, plenty to do here at the moment

 

[jakeseven7]

Personally I dont care, enjoying the safety of our state at the moment - off up north to Karijini on Friday, plenty to do here at the moment

Cool story for you

 

[RooFlyer]

not sure where you got that idea - WA certainly isnt opening up at the end of this month, unlikely before the end of the year

I got the idea when talking about Tasmania's rules (ie what happens when you return from those jurisdictions). There are Tasmanians returning at the moment from WA under FiFo as far as I'm aware. What WA does about letting people in is entirely different!

 

[JSavill]

I got the idea when talking about Tasmania's rules (ie what happens when you return from those jurisdictions). There are Tasmanians returning at the moment from WA under FiFo as far as I'm aware. What WA does about letting people in is entirely different!

There are certain categories that have exemptions, (for both states) Fifos are one of them. It doesn't mean the borders restrictions have lifted. Tassie & WA are both roughly the same and use the same G2G pass which only applies to their states. Personally I dont understand why they dont just open a corridor between them and reinstate the VA direct flight

 

[jakeseven7]

Unlikely
Qantas could get sneaky and add a CBR-MEL-HBA on a717 at competitive pricing but direct unlikely, option for next summer though.

Agree, QF won’t care about a rickety old turbo prop flying a few days a week between HBA and CBR let’s be honest.

Tasmania knows it needs Victorian air traffic open to become viable again. They will be hoping and praying Vic continues to crush its outbreak so they can restore a semblance of a normal life again soon.

 

[RooFlyer]

There are certain categories that have exemptions, (for both states) Fifos are one of them. It doesn't mean the borders restrictions have lifted. Tassie & WA are both roughly the same and use the same G2G pass which only applies to their states. Personally I dont understand why they dont just open a corridor between them and reinstate the VA direct flight

Slightly different reasons I think. WA is facing an election and I think has an ultra-conservative CMO; Tasmania has an ultra conservative CMO and a new Premier, who has tasted huge popularity and doesn't want to let go. Tasmania has a strongly 'older' population (I'm part of it) who are quite happy to curl up in their doonas, and to hell with the younger 'uns and businesses going to the wall (not part of that).

Our CMO recently said in a presser that (not withstanding we haven't had community transmission in months and months) that "I can't guarantee that the virus isn't circulating within the state". Then he says that one of the reasons that he's advising the borders be kept closed is that 'people are frightened'

But Tas is at least talking about opening up - that is, relaxing the need for 2 weeks isolation on return (at home for residents, in hotels from inter-staters). As I posted originally, from 1 Nov the current forecast is that of you return from WA, SA, NT, ACT and SA you won't be required to isolate. Whether or not WA lets people in is a different matter. NSW not yet on the list because of the cross-border traffic with Vic.

I think that's way too conservative, but there is no doubt that I'm in the minority.

 

[RooFlyer]

Agree, QF won’t care about a rickety old turbo prop flying a few days a week between HBA and CBR let’s be honest.

I'm booked HBA-CBR in early December, via SYD on the way up and via MEL on the way back. Qantas changes the flights every week, usually involving the new second leg departing before the first leg arrives so I have to call. If they keep that up for the next few months they might lose out to a rickety old tubo-prop! Status is guaranteed, so the pull of QF is less than usual!

 

[Ekka]

RooFlyer left out Queensland in his/her mentions, but included WA, SA, NT, ACT and SA .
What do we not know?

 

[nutwood]

Qantas are showing very little flexibility with their routes. I was querying this with the SST (prior to their disbandment) and their take was that the focus was on getting the normal flights up and running.
With regard to Tasmania, I have to think that the freight component must be significant. I can't fly Qantas out of Launceston as all flights go via Melbourne. If passengers were the only consideration, it's hard to see why they wouldn't use a 737 and go direct to Adelaide or Sydney. Personally, I wouldn't mind a longer flight in a Dash 8 if it meant avoiding the complications of a Melbourne transit.

 

[jakeseven7]

Qantas are showing very little flexibility with their routes. I was querying this with the SST (prior to their disbandment) and their take was that the focus was on getting the normal flights up and running.
With regard to Tasmania, I have to think that the freight component must be significant. I can't fly Qantas out of Launceston as all flights go via Melbourne. If passengers were the only consideration, it's hard to see why they wouldn't use a 737 and go direct to Adelaide or Sydney. Personally, I wouldn't mind a longer flight in a Dash 8 if it meant avoiding the complications of a Melbourne transit.

Qantas aren’t going to do anything until there is certainty around a border opening.

Of which there is not right now because of dubious premiers running around playing games with medical advice.

When there is certainty they will act if they see a market - just like the instant launch of CBR-OOL when QLD were finally forced to drop their borders to the ACT.

Keep in mind anything out of Tasmania is notoriously marginal at the best of times, VA1 lost money there for years on end and QF only cracked the formula in the last few years to churn a profit with a creative mix of metal and airlines.

Now with Covid and Mel offline for at least a few more weeks who knows what will happen to Tas in the meantime.

 

[RooFlyer]

RooFlyer left out Queensland in his/her mentions, but included WA, SA, NT, ACT and SA .

Sorry, QLD is on the list, also NSW - "possibly".

Tasmania to consider opening borders to some states before the end of October

Tasmania had held firm on refusing to open its borders until December 1, but now there's a possibility some interstate travellers will be welcome before the end of October.

www.abc.net.au

In that story, the 'State Controller' is the Police Commissioner, happily still operating under a State of Emergency here and he's said, under the advice of the Chief Medical Officer. So Mr "people are frightened" is still calling the shots.

 

[jase05]

That'll end up being one of the longer prop flights in Australia, probably close to 2 hours,

I’m stuck on a prop flight of just over 2hrs tomorrow but it was the only option unfortunately

 

[Stealthflyer]

And now Qantas has announced Hobart to Canberra flights, undercutting Link’s fares. They didn’t care about the route until a competitor did.

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[nutwood]

And now Qantas has announced Hobart to Canberra flights, undercutting Link’s fares. They didn’t care about the route until a competitor did.

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I've always found it strange that there was no direct Tas to CBR flight. I've done the MEL hop across the Strait more times that I'd like to think about and very often I'm rubbing shoulders with the lower orders travelling from Canberra.
I've put it down to a simple $'s issue. CBR - LST is an expensive flight, for no particular reason. Qantas figured that most people flying that route are being funded by the tax payer and charge accordingly. Those flying on the public purse have no aversion to putting in some time in the chairman's lounge in Melbourne, so why bother with a direct flight?