The CEO of Airnorth has had enough of hidden city ticketing. Source: Supplied
AIRNORTH has threatened to ban passengers who choose the airline’s cheapest available option for flying between Darwin, Gove and Cairns.
As a result of “aggressive competition” on the airline’s Darwin to Cairns service, which stops at Gove, the airline has discounted its flights, but has maintained its higher prices between Darwin and Gove, where it is the only operator.
One-way ‘Air Saver’ flights on the 646km Darwin to Gove route are available for between $379 and $409, while a flight on the 1680km Cairns to Darwin route costs $399.
The price difference is most apparent on the 1094km Cairns to Gove route, where passengers will pay as much as $599 for an ‘Air Saver’ ticket.
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Nearly three times as far yet cheaper to fly to Cairns than Gove from Darwin. Source: NTNews
Airnorth CEO Michael Bridge said the company was aware of a number of passengers who disembarked during the flight’s stopover in order to circumvent the expensive Cairns to Gove tickets, and that the practice was “against the fare rules in our conditions of carriage”.
Mr Bridge said the airline was keeping tabs on passengers who take advantage of the loophole in the airline’s ticketing could be black-listed from future travel.
“Airnorth have visibility of all passenger travel on our services including any passengers who fail to board their ongoing sector on a through-airfare ticket,” he said in a statement.
He said the airline could go so far as to ban passengers from flying on Airnorth if they did so, and said that the airline’s services to Gove might not be able to survive people taking advantage of the loophole the airline’s ticketing system.
Tourists are taking advantage of the ticketing loophole from Darwin. Source: Supplied
“(Taking advantage of the loophole) has the potential to not only impact a passenger’s future travel on Airnorth but will also have a wider impact on the ongoing viability of air services for Nhulunbuy residents and those in the surrounding communities,” he said.
An Airnorth spokeswoman said the airline could ban passengers from flying under the “passenger conduct” clause of the airlines conditions of carriage, a clause which is most commonly used by airlines to ban passengers who are drunk, on drugs, or who endanger the safety of the flight.
Mr Bridge said the rules were no different to any other airline’s.
“This is no different to a customer buying a cheap Darwin to Melbourne ticket which operates via Adelaide or Sydney to then find that the Darwin to Adelaide or Sydney airfare is more expensive,” he said.
There’s a cheaper way to get to Gove if you know this trick. Source: Supplied
Spokesmen for two major airlines operating in Australia said such a scenario would be unlikely in their ticketing systems, but has been noted in the US, where airlines fly more complicated patterns of routes..
One Gove local, who frequently flies between Gove and Cairns, said locals were helpless in the face of Airnorth ticket prices, which he says have increased dramatically since the airline first began operating in Darwin.
“I suppose it’s the ruthlessness of the commodity,” he said.
“If you need the ticket, you pay the fare.”
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