Virgin Australia will end its thrice weekly flights between Townsville and the Gold Coast from May 3 due to poor demand.
The airline said the route had been under review for some time and continuing revenue losses meant the flights would be scuttled in favour of increased services from the Gold Coast to Sydney and Melbourne.
The move comes as a blow for Townsville, which has emerged as an important hub for fly-in/fly-out mining services, but Virgin will continue to offer direct flights between Townsville and Sydney, Brisbane, Rockhampton and Cairns.
The Townsville-Gold Coast service has been offered on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday aboard an Embraer E-190.
Virgin said it had increased seats to the Gold Coast by 7 per cent since last year and would continue to offer 22 daily flights to the airport.
