Virgin Australia has cancelled almost one-in-four of its flights scheduled for January and February as the Omicron COVID-19 outbreak disrupts crew availability and dents travel demand.
The airline said it would operate reduced frequency on busy routes and temporarily suspend 10 routes from late January, as it continues to lose staff who are forced into isolation due to COVID-19 rules.
“Virgin Australia is dedicated to the communities that we serve and will resume these flights as soon as possible,” Virgin chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka said in a statement.
“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.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused to any guest impacted by the changes to our flight schedule during this time.”
Virgin said it welcomed moves by the NSW and Queensland governments to allow some essential workers who are close contacts of positive COVID-19 cases to leave isolation early, and was working with governments to have that extended to aviation workers.
The airline said that in the majority of cases, customers whose flights are cancelled will be moved on to alternative services.
The 10 routes that have been suspended from January 24 onwards include Virgin’s only international route, Sydney-Fiji.

Source: Civil Aviation Authority-Qatar