Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro has called for more “accountability” from major airlines after Virgin Australia indefinitely suspended its direct flights between Darwin and Adelaide during the upcoming tourism season.

Calling Virgin’s decision “awful and unbelievable”, Ms Finocchiaro said major airlines should be held more accountable for their actions in regional Australia.

“This is a big part of why we need to rebuild the economy,” she told ABC Radio.

“We need to grow our population. We need more business happening here. And these airlines need to be held accountable for what they’re doing to regional Australia.”

She did not explain how exactly the airlines would be held “accountable”.

Virgin confirmed that it is dumping the route, which was set to return on June 22 and operate three return flights per week during the peak season.

“We have made the difficult decision to indefinitely suspend our seasonal Adelaide-Darwin route based on low forecasted demand,” an airline representative said.

“While we understand this will be disappointing for some guests, this enables us to reallocate capacity to markets where demand is higher.”

The airline claimed it would prioritise adding more direct flights during peak season between Darwin and Brisbane, as well as between Darwin and Melbourne.

“This will see Virgin Australia increase seat capacity through Darwin by approximately 9 per cent compared to the same period last year from June to August 2024,” the representative told ABC.

Even though Darwin is the NT’s capital, the city has historically experienced challenges with flight options and prohibitively high airfare.

No direct daytime flights connect Darwin to Melbourne, despite airlines routinely operating flights from Melbourne to smaller regional destinations like Coffs Harbour in New South Wales and Burnie in Tasmania.

Last year, Virgin faced allegations of price gouging for Territory airfares but cited anticipated increases in landing fees at Darwin Airport.

Major airlines attribute their high fare prices to the Territory’s low population, geographical isolation, and varying tourist seasons.

Despite ongoing complaints about unfair pricing from major airlines, potential further increases in airfares loom as the Airport Development Group (ADG) will be substantially raising its fees to airlines.

Virgin claimed the fees ADG was charging airlines to land at Darwin Airport were a key factor in flight pricing.

Although ADG’s airport landing fees ranked among the highest in Australia, ADG executive general manager Rob Porter refuted claims that these fees were raising airfares.

Mr Porter justified the planned fee increase, explaining that they were essential for funding runway and infrastructure improvements.

Ms Finocchiaro said last year that one of her government’s top priorities was engaging with major airlines to address the ongoing issues of high airfare costs and availability and that her government was willing to consider the possibility of cabotage with the Federal Government, which involves allowing international carriers to operate on domestic Australian routes.

She said on Wednesday that she was “working overtime” to show Virigin and Channel Nine (which recently shut down its Darwin news bulletin) “that they were wrong” to cut services to the NT.

“They should have backed us in,” she said on Mix 104.9. “I’m backing the Territory in and when these things happen, I just work twice as hard and that’s what we’ve got to do to turn it around.”