Originally Posted by
NZbutterfly
The most important question is is DUD-Aussie profitable? Can they afford the aircraft on that route vs another?
It’s around 3.5hr drive from ZQN. Similar drive time AKL-ROT/TRG but they don’t have direct flights either. Oz is a vast country and those that do drive in Oz for tourism wont even blink at that length of drive.
heard that DUD/BNE flights were a loss maker, that only kept going due to alliance. Now alliance is ending but flights continue at terrible timings for Australians. Think the route might be passed onto Tiger who have lower costs than Virgin or will be cut to 2/week or seasonal. Time will tell. Similar thing happened years ago. Was booked to fly Freedom BNE/DUD but when got to fly Freedom had done its job of killing off Kiwi & so Air NZ actually flew the route. Must have been early 2000s.