Staff shortages have forced Virgin Australia to cancel a quarter of its flights including its one international service to Fiji, which only restarted less than one month ago.
The carrier has suspended all flights on 10 of its routes with the latest surge in Covid cases dampening travel demand and putting large numbers of staff into isolation.
“One thing we have learnt from the last two years is that we need to keep adapting as circumstances change,” said Virgin Australia CEO Jayne Hrdlicka.
“So we will continue to do that, and have made some temporary changes to our network to manage the current environment.”
It is expected that some routes will resume in March, while others will be suspended until June.
“Virgin Australia is dedicated to the communities that we serve and will resume these flights as soon as possible,” Hrdlicka said.
“Although we don’t know when this wave will pass, we do know that as we make the shift to living with Covid-19 there will continue to be changes in all our lives and we look forward to continuing to connect our guests with their families, friends, colleagues.”
The suspended routes are:
Adelaide-Darwin
Adelaide-Cairns
Adelaide-Sunshine Coast
Coffs Harbour-Melbourne
Hamilton Island-Melbourne
Sydney-Townsville
Melbourne-Townsville
Gold Coast-Launceston
Gold Coast-Hobart
Sydney-Fiji