Virgin Australia is to fly direct from Brisbane Airport to Alice Springs Airport, the carrier’s group executive Rob Sharp has told delegates at Routes Asia 2018.

The airline currently flies from Darwin and Adelaide to Alice Springs, but will launch a direct service from Brisbane later this year.

“We have quite a lot of connections into Alice Springs, but Brisbane was the missing link,” he said. “The market at Alice Springs has been growing in recent years and so we’re delighted to increase our services there.”

From 19 June 2018, Virgin Australia will operate a twice-weekly return service on Tuesdays and Thursdays under a wet lease agreement with Alliance Airlines (Alliance), operated by Alliance’s Fokker 100 and Fokker 70 fleet of aircraft.

“We are committed to connecting guests based in regional areas with Australia and the rest of the world. These services will not only strengthen our domestic network offering and increase competition on this route, but they will also provide better connectivity to international destinations such as New Zealand,” Sharp said.

The CEO of Northern Territory Airports, Ian Kew, said the new services will help to boost tourism growth in Alice Springs.

“These new services will not only provide guests with more choice, they will also play a key role in attracting more tourists to Alice Springs, which in turn will drive economic growth in our region,” Mr Kew said.

Services between Brisbane and Rockhampton, currently operated by Alliance’s Fokker 100 fleet, will also benefit with Virgin Australia upgrading two existing return flights to its Boeing 737 aircraft, adding over 300 seats per week in to the region.

Hear more from Rob Sharp:

https://soundcloud.com/pop-up-radio-australia/routes-asia-2018-intervie…