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Virgin Australia will increase its capacity into Darwin and the Northern Territory despite its suspension of services between Darwin and Adelaide.
The airline will add almost 15,000 extra passenger seats to and from Darwin in the peak northern summer season from April to October this year, compared to the same period in 2024. The announcement comes as rival Qantas Group also pledges more services to Darwin.
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“This is an increase of approximately seven per cent of our total Darwin capacity and includes additional flights on our Brisbane-Darwin and Melbourne-Darwin routes,” Virgin Australia’s chief strategy and transformation officer, Alistair Hartley, said.
“Every week, we operate more than 11,000 passenger seats in and out of the Northern Territory, connecting Territorians to Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and beyond, and bringing visitors to the Top End.
“We are always looking at new opportunities, and last year we commenced direct services between Uluru and Brisbane and Melbourne for the first time.”
During this year’s northern summer peak, Virgin will fly up to twice per day between Darwin and Brisbane, up to nine times per week between Darwin and Melbourne, and five to seven times per week between Darwin and Perth, as well as increasing interstate services to Alice Springs and Uluru.
In total, Virgin says its northern summer schedule will deliver almost 8,000 seats to Darwin, and 11,000 seats to the Northern Territory as a whole, every week.
“We work closely with tourism stakeholders including Tourism NT to offer customers affordable fares during off-peak periods when demand is lower, driving visitation and supporting the local tourism industry,” Hartley said.
“We are committed to supporting domestic tourism and working with our global partners including Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines, United Airlines, Air Canada and ANA to support international connectivity.”
Virgin last week confirmed it was cutting its three-times-weekly Darwin–Adelaide service, which was set to return on 22 June but has now been suspended “indefinitely” due to low forecasted demand.
“While we understand this will be disappointing for some guests, this enables us to reallocate capacity to markets where demand is higher,” the airline said.
The major carriers last year defended themselves against accusations of price gouging in Darwin, citing factors such as small population, seasonality, and high airport fees.
