❓ Mr. Watson questions the Minister for Tourism about the impact of Virgin Australia cancelling flights to Albany and Esperance and what actions the government took to prevent it. The Minister acknowledges the negative impact and details unsuccessful attempts to collaborate with Virgin Australia.
AnsweredQoN 806Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
DIRECT FLIGHTS — ALBANY AND ESPERANCE
806. Mr P.B. WATSON to the Minister for
Tourism:
I refer to the cancellation of
Virgin Australia flights to Albany and Esperance from late February, with the
future of flights to these centres uncertain.
(1) What will the
impacts on tourism to these regional centres be with the withdrawal of Virgin
Australia as a carrier?
(2) What did the
minister and his government do to retain a major carrier for flights to Albany
and Esperance?
806. Mr P.B. WATSON to the Minister for
Tourism:
I refer to the cancellation of
Virgin Australia flights to Albany and Esperance from late February, with the
future of flights to these centres uncertain.
(1) What will the
impacts on tourism to these regional centres be with the withdrawal of Virgin
Australia as a carrier?
(2) What did the
minister and his government do to retain a major carrier for flights to Albany
and Esperance?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) It
is very unfortunate that Virgin Australia has cancelled its flights, both to
Albany and linking to Esperance. It made that very clear in advance of a plan
that has been put together by the Minister for Transport. Other options are up
for other people to bid. There has long been dissatisfaction with what was
Skywest Airlines and now Virgin flights to Albany in particular. Complaints
have been coming out of Albany, as the member would know. I notice the member's
local chamber of commerce expressed a view in today's paper that it was
completely dissatisfied that this occurred and it hopes that new flights will
be able to commence. There also have been calls for that market to be
deregulated. In a sense, it now is deregulated because without that flight
being available, no-one has got that particular job at the moment. I do not
think it is good news for Albany, unlike those who were not happy with the
previous flights. I think it is bad news for Albany. It is bad news for tourism
in Albany and in Esperance. We will need to do everything we can through
Tourism WA to try to support whichever new organisation gets that particular
flight route. I had meetings with Virgin within the last month to talk about
that route—this was before it said that it was cancelling it—so
we discussed it. I said at that time that we were worried and I asked whether
there was anything we could do. We looked at how we could work together with
Tourism WA to try to make tourism packages available. The response from Virgin
at the time was that those flights that we would be able to jointly support
through marketing were just nowhere near enough to make a difference for the
money that it was losing in flying that route. There was nothing that the state
government or the Western Australian Tourism Commission was able to do that
would change whatever it was going to do. Virgin said that it had not made up
its mind at the time, but there was nothing we could do to fix that, I can
assure members, but if there was, we would have done that because I think it is
critically important.
is very unfortunate that Virgin Australia has cancelled its flights, both to
Albany and linking to Esperance. It made that very clear in advance of a plan
that has been put together by the Minister for Transport. Other options are up
for other people to bid. There has long been dissatisfaction with what was
Skywest Airlines and now Virgin flights to Albany in particular. Complaints
have been coming out of Albany, as the member would know. I notice the member's
local chamber of commerce expressed a view in today's paper that it was
completely dissatisfied that this occurred and it hopes that new flights will
be able to commence. There also have been calls for that market to be
deregulated. In a sense, it now is deregulated because without that flight
being available, no-one has got that particular job at the moment. I do not
think it is good news for Albany, unlike those who were not happy with the
previous flights. I think it is bad news for Albany. It is bad news for tourism
in Albany and in Esperance. We will need to do everything we can through
Tourism WA to try to support whichever new organisation gets that particular
flight route. I had meetings with Virgin within the last month to talk about
that route—this was before it said that it was cancelling it—so
we discussed it. I said at that time that we were worried and I asked whether
there was anything we could do. We looked at how we could work together with
Tourism WA to try to make tourism packages available. The response from Virgin
at the time was that those flights that we would be able to jointly support
through marketing were just nowhere near enough to make a difference for the
money that it was losing in flying that route. There was nothing that the state
government or the Western Australian Tourism Commission was able to do that
would change whatever it was going to do. Virgin said that it had not made up
its mind at the time, but there was nothing we could do to fix that, I can
assure members, but if there was, we would have done that because I think it is
critically important.
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