Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says Qantas plans to cut more than 30,000 seats from the region over the upcoming tourist season

Transcript

Tourism Central Australia CEO Danial Rochford says Qantas plans to cut more than 30,000 seats from the region over the upcoming tourist season · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Daniel Rochford,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: the CEO of Tourism Central Australia. Good morning to you, Daniel, Good.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Morning Katie, and good morning to your listening now Daniel.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Unfortunately, this morning's some pretty crappy news. Well from my understanding,
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: there's been some further cuts when it comes to our
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: flights to and from Alice Springs.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the wider Central Australian region. Katie, good morning
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: to you and good morning to your listeners. I think
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: it's certainly really bad us for our industry in our region.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Today we have found out that we are seeing a
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: reduction of over thirty thousand seats in and out of
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Central Australia over the coming peak tourism season, which is
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: going to be a body blow for our sector and
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: our body blow for our region.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Thirty thousand seats.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, to put that into perspective, I think that's around
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: equivalent onto one hundred and seventy aircraft. So look, this
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: of course comes off the back of as you know,
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: we're almost ten percent of our industry being wiped off
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: the map because of COVID and then staring down the
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: crime and antisocial issues and the firestorm of national media.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: This has now come upon us and our message this
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: morning is that we need help from our all the
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: territory government. We need the government to be standing up,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: rolling up the sleeves and working with our airports to
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: actively pursue competition in out of Central Australia. Might I
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: just suggest I don't have the statistics with me, Katie,
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: but these cuts are also happening in Darwin too, which
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: is something you should have a look at.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we will try and get in contact with
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: tourism top end and see what we can find out
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: when it comes to Darwin and the cuts. But Daniel,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: just to put that into perspective for us, a reduction
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: of over thirty thousand seats when does he start?
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So the first of them will start being seen next
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: week and they will go through to October, which is
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: you know, is our peak tours and season across the
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: Northern Territory. So you know that's thirty thousand seats we
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: will not be able to sell to tourists or to
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: residents wanting to get out of Central Australia. So you
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: know this does strike at the heart of the livability
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: of our communities in Central Australia and you know we've
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: already got enough challenges. This one on top of that
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: is just a real kick in the guts.
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: Daniel. Can you just tell us as well, what do
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: you think that this is going to mean then when
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it comes to you know, the flights that you do
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: still have and.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: The cost, Yeah, there will, no doubt be you know,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: upward pressure on airfares. That said corners have put some
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: cheaper airfares in place, and that's to be fair on them,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: that's what they have done. But what we see when
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: capacity drops, you do see an upward increase in airfares
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: and again that is going to be a real challenge
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: for us if we see that, and I suspect we
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: will really the name of the game here, Katie and
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Quannas can make the decisions and ultimately they're a business
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and they have that ability. But we need to get
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: competition into the market here at Central Australia and we've
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: written to the Chief Minister on February thirteen to seek
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: the government support to actively pursue competition in the market,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and we have bondser offering eighty dollars airfares on the
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Eastern Seaboard we've got recks pursuing a growth agenda. These
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: are two airlines that we need to be encouraging to
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: come to the Northern Territory.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Have they dropped the ball here, Daniel?
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: Look, I think it's one of those things where the
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Northern Territory government's got a lot on their plates, Katie,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: and you know what's not that involves. But this is
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: one that we just can't not lose sight of. It's
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: really causing a lot of angst here in Central Australia
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: once people are aware of this news, and it is
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: certainly going to be one of those things if we
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: don't fix it, is going to absolutely attack the social
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: fabric of our communities right across the territory.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I mean more than thirty thousand seats across that period
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: of time really from next week until October. What does
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: that equate to in terms of flights sort of per
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: week Daniel? Is it a reduction of a few flights
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a week.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, basically we've lost one Sydney flight. During the course
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: of the season, we'll see a loss of two to
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: one to two seats sorry, one to two services per
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: week to mel from Alice and also one service from
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: July from Melbourne to Ularu, as well as a cutback
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: in seats from Cannes to Earlarue. So this is a
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: fairly wide ranging cut and of course does come off
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: the back last year of another thirty thousand feets cut
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: back from Adelaide and Perth into Alice Springs. So in
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: the last twelve months we've seen over sixty thousand seats
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: taken away out of Alice Springs.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Daniel is a demand just not there because of the
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: crime crisis that's been experienced.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: No far from it. In fact, my members are saying
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: that they're losing business because the capacity is not there.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: They can't physically get people on planes, so you know
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: that certainly flies in the face of the demand. We
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: know these demands. We know I hear locally across Alice
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Springs people wanting to travel by air, but it's not
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: cost effective for them. They're literally choosing to drive out
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: of Alice Springs rather than fly. The demand is there, Katie,
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: but unfortunately when you're experiencing you know, for me to
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: fly home to Brisbane will often cost upwards of a
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: thousand to twelve hundred dollars, So you know people are
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: making the decision to drive instead of fly.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, we'd even heard about that a couple
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: of weeks ago. I think I mentioned it to you
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: last time, You're on the show where we had you know,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: one of one of our listeners who also runs Wonderful
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Business Savvy Social saying that you know, she was keen
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: to get across to Alice Springs for Pachama, as I
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: know a lot of people are, and the cost of
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: flying there was insane.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't you know, you guys up in
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: Darwin have jet Start, so you do have an alternative,
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: albeit that's Corners Group, but it is a lower cost option.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: We don't have that luxury in Central Australia. And that's
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: one of the reasons why this message is very much
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: to the Chief Minister and our Minister for Tourism that
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: we need to drive competition here across the Northern Territory.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: We have bonds that we have wrecks who are eager
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: to expand their network, but we need to roll up
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: the sleeves and to encourage and incentivize that expansion. Yeah.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Hey, with all of these, you know, with these carts, Daniel,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: is it going to mean that there will be job
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: losses in Central Australia as well.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: Oh look, I've not heard anyone say that to me,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: but there's certainly pressure on the upcoming tourism season. I
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: had heard from one operator this morning that was saying
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: her bookings have never been so low for July at
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: this time of year. I've heard many operate is saying
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: that there is a shallowing of length of stay. I
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: think that's directly attributal to the crime issues that we've
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: been facing. So rather than staying three or four nights,
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: people are just staying one night at out of springs.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: So there will no doubt be a massive economic impact here.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: We have publicly stated, and I say it again, that
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: we expect to be losing tens of millions of dollars
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: out of our regional economy just from the loss of
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: events that we've talked about in recent works. So this
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: is on.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Top of that, Oh mate, what a kick in the guards.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: And you know, it is on top of the social
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: issues that you've been experiencing for quite some time. And
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I know that that national you know that national media coverage.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: It doesn't help in the sense that it does make
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: you scared to get there. But you've been calling out
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: for you know, for a long time last year on
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the Northern Territory level, for some change and and you know,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: like nobody's sort of listened in the way that they
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: needed to, and now we've wound up in this situation.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not something that we haven't been talking about.
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's something that if you live in
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Central Australia, you live with every day. You know. There
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: are literally people sitting around at coaching table now thinking
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: about leaving Alice Springs because they just can't get in
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: and out to see their family, or someone looking to
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: come to Alice Springs seeing how much it's going to cost.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: These are things, these decisions really strike at the heart
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: of the social fabric of our town.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they really do.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Daniel.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: You did touch on the fact that there's also going
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: to be cuts two flights to Darwin, but you don't
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: have that info, do you in front of you?
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I know that's actually no, that's the only positive. There
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: is actually a little increase between Alice Springs and Darwin
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: and a very small increase to to Adelaide. So there
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: is some positive news in this, But when you compare
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: it to against the loss that we've had. Yeah, it's
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: fairly small.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well that's exactly right. I mean when you compare
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: it to the PA and your decrease that you're going
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: to see, it's a big loss for you guys, and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: just one that is not needed at this point. But Daniel,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: I reckon that point that you're making about us trying
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: to attract Bonza or even Rex. You know, I'd seen
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: it out of North Queensland. They're flying from Cans to
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: Rocky for like ninety dollars and that kind of thing.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the biggest thing that your listeners can
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: do to do this is send an email to the
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister saying this is
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: what we want guys, because we need people from across
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory to say that our government. You need
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: to help us roll up your sleeves and back the
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Northern Territory on this.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Daniel Rochford, I always appreciate your time. I'm sorry
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that in recent weeks it has been certainly on some
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: really tough stuff for you guys. But we'll continue to
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: keep chatting and I'm sure that at some point we're
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: going to have something positive going on. No worries, Dani,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: you'll look after yourself mate. Thank you.