People travelling between Adelaide and Darwin will have their flight options reduced as Virgin cancels its direct services. Reporter Rachael Merritt has more from Adelaide Airport.
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00:00This move will no doubt come as a surprise to many South Australians who had been planning
00:08a getaway to the Top End during those really cold winter months.
00:13Virgin Australia will be indefinitely cutting its seasonal route between Darwin and Adelaide
00:19during the peak tourism season for the Northern Territory.
00:24The service was set to return from June 22 and offer three weekly return flights between
00:34those two cities.
00:36The airline says the move to axe the service was due to forecast low demand.
00:42They said they understand it's disappointing to many passengers but the cut will actually
00:48allow them to schedule more direct flights between Darwin and other major cities including
00:54Melbourne and Brisbane.
00:56The Northern Territory's Chief Minister Leah Finocchiaro has weighed in on this move.
01:02She's called the decision to axe the flight awful and unbelievable and said that the airlines
01:12need to be held to account for what they're doing to regional Australia.
01:17Meanwhile the Executive General Manager of Corporate at Adelaide Airport says they'll
01:23keep talking to Virgin to see if they can't bring back this seasonal flight for future
01:28years but in the meantime they are telling passengers that there are a number of alternate
01:35routes available that Qantas and Jetstar still offer direct flights between those two cities.