An interesting article regarding why Darwin has so few international flights.
How times and aircraft have changed.
When I was at school, Darwin was called the gateway to Australia as all international flight North of Australia arrived at and departed from Darwin.
Very curious. Perhaps Darwin decided they didn’t want the additonal traffic?
I don’t think Darwin had any involvement in the matter.
Years ago, aircraft needed to refuel in Darwin before departing from or arriving in Australia.
Now Qantas can fly non-stop from Perth to London.
I think it is because Darwin is very small, population of around 122,000.
Yes, one may argue that international flights can be independ6of a cities population as the flights could be full with intefnatiinal tourists and then depart later with fhe same international tourists. This possibly works when the international destinations have a high wealth and a lot of wealthy internatiinal travellers. There also needs to be sufficient attractions to keep these wealthy travellers busy for a number of days/week or more.
Unfortunately, our Asian neighbours are n ot wealthy nor have a high proporation that travel (especially to remote locatoons like Darwin). If Darwin had a population like Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, then the number of flights woukd be considerably more with Australians leaving for an overseas destination.
Maybe the only way for international flight nunbers to increase would be for flights ex eastern capitals having a stopover in Darwin on route to the international destination. Some however may find this inconvenient and an unnecessary delay on their travels.
Valid points, people are usually trying to get to the destination as fast as possible. If NT tourism could do a deal with Qantas, for example, I reckon a few travellers would consider it if it also made better financial sense in the same way Air NZ often stops over in Auckland for US flights from more populous capitals.
