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Virgin Australia is axing its flights from Cairns to Tokyo (Haneda), citing low inbound passenger numbers from Japan.
The daily service, which launched only last June, will be dropped from 24 February, with Virgin to redeploy the 737 MAX 8 aircraft currently operating the route onto domestic flights.
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Virgin says passengers from Japan are still around 35 per cent below pre-pandemic levels. The low value of the yen is one factor that may be contributing to these poor figures, with the yen now 40 per cent lower against the Australian dollar than in 2019.
Around 2,000 customers booked to travel from Cairns to Tokyo with VA after 24 February will be refunded. In a statement, Virgin Australia’s chief transformation and strategy officer, Alistair Hartley, apologised to affected customers.
“Our international network continues to be a central part of our strategy. Withdrawing from Cairns-Tokyo services was a tough decision, but unfortunately the recovery of inbound visitors from Japan is significantly below forecast and therefore operating our own service to Tokyo is no longer commercially viable,” Hartley said.
According to Hartley, Virgin will continue to offer flights to Japan through its codeshare partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA), which operates 17 weekly return services between Australia and Japan and can be booked through the Virgin website.
“We have a strong partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA) which will allow us to continue to support inbound tourism from Japan to Australia and through to popular tourist destinations like Far North Queensland,” said Hartley.
“Equally, Virgin Australia customers and Velocity Frequent Flyer members will be able to book seamless flights with ANA from just about anywhere in Australia to Japan directly on our website. We will also continue to provide Velocity Points earn, Rewards Seats and loyalty benefits on eligible ANA flights.”
Virgin Australia began operating its Cairns–Haneda service last year, initially using 737-700 aircraft due to delays in the arrival of the 737 MAX 8s which have since been assigned to the route. Tokyo (Haneda) was Virgin’s sixth overseas destination post-pandemic, following Bali, Queenstown, Nadi, Port Vila (Vanuatu) and Apia (Samoa).
The airline currently operates seven 737 MAX 8s, with an eighth scheduled for delivery next month and six remaining on the order books afterwards. The airline increased its MAX 8 order to 14 in November, and is also awaiting 25 of the larger MAX 10s.
Delivery of the MAX 8s to Virgin, now the only Australian airline to operate the 737 MAX family following the collapse of Bonza, has been delayed due to the ongoing issues at Boeing.
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says:It is sad that VOZ has decided to vacate their Japan venture at CNS but also predictable. The previous owners were “gifted” the route from BNE and they were in a hard place at that time so politically they had little option but to take up that offer. The arrival of the new mob changed all that and we now are faced with more confirmation that if you can’t at least offer the same as your competitor/s, even with a public tax payer subsidy, you aint in the race I mean 6 plus hours in a high density 737 as opposed to a wide body aircraft just does not compute, further, this result will surely have an effect on their efforts to go to the market whenever that is to be. I understand the financial constraints at that time when the decision was made to release the A330’s but operationally and commercially it was a damaging long term commercial loss-making decision and operationally naive to boot. Pick up the phone and go call an equipment Leasor and order a brace of A330-8NEO which can only enhance your operational and commercial bottom line and excite the market for the IPO. The alternative is not looking good.