Virgin Australia (ASX: VAH) will cut its flight capacity in line with the deterioration of the global travel industry due to the spread of Covid-19.
Across the group, domestic capacity will be cut by five per cent for 2H20 which will increase to 6.2 per cent in 1H21.
While the airline is primarily an Australian domestic service, the group says it has observed increasing weakness in international forward bookings.
As a result, Virgin will reduce international capacity by eight per cent in 2H20 to meet expected demand.
Key changes are:
- Reducing the daily Brisbane to Haneda service to three times per week from 29 March until 3 May.
- Reducing the daily Sydney to LA service to five times per week from early May to early June.
- Further reducing Trans-Tasman services from a 2.6 per cent reduction to a six per cent reduction for 2H20, including the strategic reduction of frequencies on Auckland-Melbourne to daily from May and a temporary reduction on Auckland-Sydney services.
Additionally, Virgin will exit the Auckland-Tonga service on 1 May and the Auckland-Rarotonga on 21 July.
Click here for a more in-depth story on Virgin's capacity reduction.
Updated 10:15am AEDT on 13 March 2020.
Get our daily business news
Sign up to our free email news updates.
Help us deliver quality journalism to you.
As a free and independent news site providing daily updates
during a period of unprecedented challenges for businesses everywhere
we call on your support