Virgin Australia has announced it will not resume direct flights between Adelaide and Darwin this year. The service was set to return from 22 June for the Top End’s busy tourism season, with three flights per week.
According to a Virgin Australia spokesperson, the cancellation of the route was due to low demand and followed a review of its network.
“We have made some adjustments to our schedule following a review of our network for the Northern Summer 2025 season (April to October 2025),” they said.
“As part of this review, we have made the difficult decision to indefinitely suspend our seasonal Adelaide-Darwin route based on low forecasted demand.
“Whilst we understand this will be disappointing for some guests, this enables us to reallocate capacity to markets where demand is higher.”
In place of its SA-Top End flights, the carrier has opted to boost peak season routes between Darwin and Brisbane, as well as Darwin and Melbourne, which currently has no direct daytime flights.
“Additional flights will be scheduled on Brisbane-Darwin and Melbourne-Darwin routes during the peak season from June to August 2025,” the airline said.
“This will see Virgin Australia increase seat capacity through Darwin by approximately 6 per cent compared to the same period last year.
“Virgin Australia’s overall Northern Territory capacity will increase by approximately 3 per cent compared to the Northern Summer 2024 season driven by seasonal increase on Darwin routes as well as our recently launched Uluru services.”
However, Northern Territory Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro criticised the move, calling it “awful and unbelievable”.
“This is a big part of why we need to rebuild the economy,” she told ABC Radio Darwin.
“We need to grow our population, we need more business happening here. And these airlines need to be held accountable for what they’re doing to regional Australia.”
The end of Virgin’s DRW-ADL route comes as rival Qantas ups flights to the NT capital during the peak tourism season.
The flying kangaroo will commence a new service between Darwin and Singapore on 30 March 2025, while it will also operate new Darwin-Canberra flights from June to October this year.
