Qantas plans to abandon the Adelaide–Mount Gambier corridor and cut capacity on other regional routes, even as it insists no direct jobs will go. Unions and local leaders say contractors, business travellers and regional communities are the ones left without certainty – or seats.
Qantas will cease all flights between Adelaide and Mount Gambier from 18 May, and suspend four other regional routes, as the airline grapples with rising fuel costs and falling passenger demand.
The airline announced the cuts on, citing flights on the Adelaide–Mount Gambier route operating at less than 20% capacity. Qantas said its overall fuel bill could increase by $800 million, and it would also reduce domestic capacity by 5 percentage points across other routes.
The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) said aviation staff learned of the cuts through the media at the same time as the general public. TWU national assistant secretary Emily McMillan said the announcement came as a shock to workers.
“In the conversations we’ve had, we were thinking that there weren’t going to be any cancellations or closures like this,” McMillan said.
She described the situation as part of a broader, recurring pattern from the airline.
“So, it’s concerning that we’re seeing the same old pattern from Qantas, where we’ve seen ongoing regional base closures and job losses taken at inopportune moments like this,” she said.
Contractors left exposed
While Qantas confirmed that no direct Qantas jobs would be affected by the route reductions, McMillan warned that airport-based contractors – a group that falls outside the airline’s direct workforce – remained in an uncertain position. She called for stronger regulation of airlines to protect regional services.
“When airlines are able to dictate policy, they’re going to choose profit over services, and that means regional communities miss out,” McMillan said. “We’re saying there will continue to be pressure points, whether it is COVID, whether it is fuel, whether it is international events, ash clouds. These events keep happening in aviation.”
Local officials also raised concerns about how flight scheduling had contributed to poor demand. Kylie Boston, mayor of the District Council of Grant, said the existing timetable was misaligned with business travel needs.
“For us to make those flights work, we really need something that we can fly to either Adelaide or Melbourne first thing in the morning, and be able to come back that night,” Boston said. “The flight times weren’t necessarily suiting what our market is here.”
Qantas said it had attempted to stimulate demand by adjusting schedules and offering sales, and had consulted with state and federal politicians in the month prior to the announcement.
The cuts arrive against a broader backdrop of declining regional air access across Australia. The federal government’s Aviation White Paper, released in August 2024, found ticket prices for flights involving regional airports were on average 52% higher per km than flights between capital cities, and the number of regional routes fell from 458 to 291 between 1989 and 2021.
