Qantas to return to Burnie / Wynyard Route
 

Exert from the local Advocate News Paper
After 15 years "the flying kangaroo" will bring a domestic route back to Burnie.

But the news that Qantas will operate a daily service between Melbourne and Burnie from June 21 has received a lukewarm response from the chamber of commerce.

Announcing the return of the route, QantasLink CEO John Gissing said the move reflected a "growing demand for travel within Australia".

But Business Northwest's tourism spokesman Justin McErlain said that while the move may bring more competitive pricing to the Coast, "the question will be how long they stay".

Mr McErlain said Qantas's move will put "immense pressure" on Rex Airlines, which is currently the only carrier on the Burnie to Melbourne route, as it works to expand its operations to become a national carrier.

Southern Australia operated a Dash8-100 on that route to give Kendell’s a bit of competition in the late 90’s.

Most people down the coast just jump in their car and drive to Launy to get the cheaper flights, better flight times and connections.

Qantas would be better off focusing more on Launy as it is central to most of the Tasmanian population.

Is Hobart in Tasmania?????

Why would you drive 90 mins from Burnie to Launy to catch a flight? It would need to be really cheap to offset the expense and inconvenience of the drive and parking to make it attractive over a direct flight.

Yer, there is a big difference in between $100 and $200 each way! Parking at airports is always expensive and isn’t a consideration for the average punter.

I’m a Tasmanian and a 90 minute drive in Tasmania isn’t a problem, compared to some of the major cities.

I’m sorry to hear that.

Something that hasn't been mentioned is that Rex will bleed from this because their burnie flight is triangulated with King Island. Punters hate it

Duck,
Have you left Darwin? and done finished with PNG?

What are you on about?

The triangulated sector was introduced during COVID.

All flights with the exception of 1 a day are direct. With the increase of flights in the upcoming weeks there will be 4 direct flights per day plus one triangulated sector.

The locals actually like the triangulated sector and has proven to be very popular to get to/from King Island for Tasmanians. For those wishing to go directly to Melbourne, they can.

ah you're right, I have been misinformed

The irony of Rex doing the Wynyard to King Island leg is that this was a route previously flown exclusively by Sharp Airlines. However rex entered the route with massive capacity increases and begun to poach Sharps pax. Despite this route barely being able to support a Metro in the past. Now Sharp (the airline not the w@nker) has taken Rex to the ACCC over the matter despite Rex claiming they're just bringing choice to the community.

Sound familiar?

It will interesting to see how dedicated Qantas are to the route, do they have a flight out first thing in the morning? Or do they run a flight in first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon?

The jungle drums are beating, that Qantas may run a Dash8 into King Island as well!