QF to announce CBR-DRW route from Feb 2010.

[Jason A]

non-stop direct services between Canberra and Darwin, from February 2010.

You heard it here first

[Jarden S]

I actually read it first on Airliner's net last week. But was not going to post it on here untill the official press release comes out. I heard 3 times a week using 73H aircraft.

[Stefan Perkas]

Afternoon all,

3x a week Monday, Wednesday and Friday's

From 1/02/10 til 03/04/10

QF844 Dep CBR 0930 Arr DRW 1225
QF845 Dep DRW 1310 Arr CBR 1850

From 4/04/10

QF844 Dep CBR 0930 Arr DRW 1325
QF845 Dep DRW 1410 Arr CBR 1850

[Steve Jones]

CBR press release:

NEW DIRECT FLIGHTS TO DARWIN - EVERY STATE AND TERRITORY CAPITAL COVERED

Canberra Airport is delighted by the news that Qantas will commence non-stop direct return services from Canberra to Darwin from February 2010.

Mr Matthew Brown, Manager Aviation for Canberra Airport stated that: "With these new flights to Darwin every State and Territory Capital is now linked by direct jet services to the National Capital.”

Using state of the art 164-seat B737-800 aircraft, these new direct services are expected to be well patronised by government and business passengers as well as holidaymakers.

“Significant numbers of people already travel between Canberra and Darwin for business and pleasure. This new flight means they will be able to travel between the two cities non-stop, without having to change planes in Sydney, Brisbane or Adelaide”, Mr Brown said.

“We expect that this direct service will also help stimulate business and tourism between Canberra and Darwin, providing a valuable support to the two Territories’ tourism, hospitality and accommodation industries at a time when people need to be encouraged to travel within Australia”, Mr Brown added.

The new Canberra-Darwin flight is a further vote of confidence in Canberra Airport after the recent introduction of daily direct services to Hobart and Townsville.

“The new direct services bring to eleven the number of destinations served direct from Canberra Airport.” Mr Brown said. “Never before has the Nation’s Capital been so well connected with the other cities in Australia.

Services depart Canberra for Darwin at 9.30am on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays, returning to Canberra at 6.50pm.

[Gareth U]

Excellent news! Particularly for Canberra Airport.

Shame Qantas cannot manage a token MEL-DRW-MEL service in the peak season to compliment Jetstar. The demand IS there.

[Scotty B]

Originally Posted by Gareth U

Shame Qantas cannot manage a token MEL-DRW-MEL service in the peak season to compliment Jetstar.

That just sounds so completely wrong......

[Kain C]

There are no additional CBR-PER, CBR-ADL, CBR-MEL, CBR-SYD or CBR-BNE flights on these 3 days; how does the aircraft get to CBR to do the CBR-DRW? Does the PER-CBR just overnight and then do the CBR-DRW 3 days a week, while sitting on the ground in CBR all day the other 4 days?

If only QF did CBR-HBA then they would have non-stop CBR-all capital cities in Australia.

[Steve Jones]

Kain - Virgin do a daily E170 HBA flight, however. Does quite well I hear.

I suspect the linking flights aren't yet in the schedule. One would guess it will be like the PER flight where the 73H goes SYD-CBR-PER-CBR (overnight)-SYD, though as you said, the times would allow the 73H to go direct DRW-CBR-PER.

[Kain C]

Yes Steve, by they I meant QF.

I know the CBR-HBA with DJ does quite well; wouldn't mind seeing some E90 or 73G on peak days over summer but I guess SYD-CBR and CBR-MEL are a bit quiet over that period to warrant the larger aircraft on the linking flights.

As for the CBR-DRW linking flights possibly not being loaded yet, what is the advantage of not loading them in? Surely if they know when they will be (or else how would they know the CBR-DRW schedule), why wouldn't you make them available. Even if only 1 person buys a seat in the next week, they [QF] will still be up won't they?

[Alex Lui]

How do the Townsville flights fair? Are they getting good loads?

Regarding the Darwin flights, the flights to Darwin are loaded into the system, with flights at $179 I guess to entice people to try it (worked for me!). Looking at their schedules, I suspect the aircraft maybe coming in from Adelaide the night before and head out to Darwin when it operates and maybe to Sydney during the rest of the time (QF872). The afternoon Adelaide - Canberra flight is a 73H while QF872 is a 73H. I know that it may head to Sydney but the Darwin flight could be from Canberra?? I have no idea where it heads to after getting into Canberra because most flights don't make that connection time. But like everyone says, it's not loaded into the system yet where the aircraft comes from.

The a/c for Perth is fed from Sydney. QF805 is still a 73H and that turns into QF719 for Perth, QF771 does that on Saturday for QF717 to Perth.

Regarding Perth, I noticed that the flights from Perth to Canberra are majority 734's. Could it be that time of year that loads aren't the best to put the 734 on this run or again has it not been updated yet? The only flight that has the 73H for the week I searched was Saturday or Friday.

Good on Qantas for having another flight out of Canberra. Hopefully this flight can get decent loads so that all cities can still be connected. Now if only we could say get one International flight, that would be good.