The future of Strategic Airlines‘ Phuket-Brisbane and Phuket-Melbourne flights currently hangs in the balance as the company has cancelled its services between Perth and Bali, and Townsville and Bali respectively starting October, along with those between Brisbane and Townsville in a plan to reassess its commitments. However, the airline has so far refused to comment on the future of its Phuket-Australia or Brisbane-Bali services.

Strategic Airlines began flying between Phuket and the two Australian state capitals in February, but was forced to interrupt services in June after the only aircraft covering both routes was rendered out of action for several days due to mechanical failure. This lead to complaints from stranded passengers due to the lack of communication and delays in finding alternative flights home from other airlines that Strategic had, although the company vowed then to never let such a situation arise again.

General feedback from Strategic’s clients is, however, good regarding its low-cost full-service flights, while Phuket has clear benefits from being directly linked to Brisbane, the largest city in the north of Australia’s popular east coast, and Melbourne in the south. However, as the small airline is mostly aimed towards maximising its revenues, the future of these flights is unclear after the Brisbane-Townsville and Perth-Bali services have been cancelled in order to supplement the more profitable flights between Perth, the west coast capital, and Derby, a northern town that has turned into the centre of the country’s mining boom.

According to the perthtoday website, Strategic Airlines has not been available for comment so far and clients holding tickets beyond October for the cancelled routes should contact either the airline or their travel agent.

The Perth-Bali route is also being operated by Virgin Australia, Jetstar, Air Asia and Skywest.

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