Tourism Minister announces Kangaroo Island stopgap
There’s been a new announcement around vital ferry services being temporarily shut down to one of the state’s premiere holiday destinations.
Environment and Tourism Minister Emily Bourke has announced that Qantas will offer extra flights to Kangaroo Island during the temporary suspension of SeaLink ferry services in October.
She said the news comes after discussions between the airline and the state government to support KI residents, businesses and visitors during the transition to the new ferry fleet.
SeaLink is temporarily suspending regular ferry services on Tuesday, October 20, Wednesday, October 21 and Thursday, October 22, as it undertakes infrastructure works associated with the commissioning of new ferries.
InDaily recently reported that Kelsian’s two new vessels that will ferrying people to and from Kangaroo Island will likely set sail in early to mid-November after significant delays in the delivery of the new people movers from Indonesia.
Once the upgrades are completed, the new vessels will be able to operate on the infrastructure, Kelsian CEO Graeme Legh saying that the “go-live of the two new vessels fully in service will occur a couple of weeks after the 20th of October”.
“Kangaroo Island remains open for business, and these additional flights will help visitors keep the island firmly on their travel plans,” Bourke said.
“This is a practical solution that supports local tourism operators and provides travellers with more options while ferry services are temporarily unavailable.
“We thank Qantas for stepping up to provide additional capacity at an important time for Kangaroo Island.”
Wanggami was formally christened on July 30 in South Australia while the second ship, called Ruwi, was delayed due to an “incident” during the final testing in Indonesia.
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Qantas will operate an additional service departing Adelaide at 4:30pm on each of the three days, with a return flight departing Kingscote at 5:40pm.
It already has a daily morning service from Adelaide, which typically departs at 9:30am. Afternoon services already operate on Mondays and Fridays.
The extra flights would make more than 400 additional seats to and from Kangaroo Island across the three-day period.
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