A regional Queensland mayor is calling on Qantas boss Alan Joyce to visit his town to see the "disappointing" effect that flight cuts are having on health services and businesses.
QantasLink ran daily flights between Brisbane and Charleville prior to the pandemic when air travel was grounded.
While other regional routes have since had their complete schedules restored, Charleville now only has flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.
Murweh Shire Council Mayor Shaun Radnedge says he has been fighting for 18 months to get to that point and the four flights a week are still not guaranteed.
He said he received a text message from a passenger on Friday morning notifying him that Sunday's flight had been cancelled.
A Qantas spokesperson said the flight was cancelled due to low demand.
"Demand for Sunday flights out of Charleville is low, with less than 10 customers booked on some of these flights, which is why we've had to make the decision to cancel them," the airline said in a statement.
Cr Radnedge said he disputed that claim and understood there were 50 passengers booked on the outbound flight to Charleville and 27 on the return leg to Brisbane.
He said Qantas has not communicated what the passenger number threshold is that determines if a flight will be cancelled or not.
The airline said it could not continue to fund "loss-making flights".
"COVID has already blown a $16 billion hole in our revenue," a spokesperson said.
"We have reduced our flight schedules right across the country.
"We know that cancellations are an inconvenience to customers, which is why they are always a last resort."
Flight schedule 'affecting our health'
Cr Radnedge said when the Sunday flight was restored last month it effectively gave visiting doctors an extra half a day to see patients.
"They can start work first thing Monday morning," he said.
"When that Sunday flight is not available ... they don't fly into Charleville until 1.30pm [on Monday], so potentially you don't start work until 3:00pm.
He said last-minute cancellations to Sunday flights could have devastating impacts on patients travelling to Brisbane to see specialists.
"You're potentially going to miss that doctor's appointment that you've potentially, with COVID, been waiting for, for six to eight weeks.
"You wouldn't book a Sunday flight if you didn't think it was going to be important to go on that Sunday."
'Don't forget where you belong'
Councillor Radnedge said he would try to facilitate a roundtable with state and federal governments as soon as possible and would extend an invite to Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce.
He said Mr Joyce should not "forget where you started from".
The airline's first flight was a mail run between Charleville and Cloncurry in November 1922.
The airline acknowledged its history serving Charleville and said Cr Radnedge was "clearly misinformed about Qantas's commitment" to the town.
"We'll continue to work with the local community to ensure air travel remains accessible as well as sustainable," a spokesperson said.
Cr Radnedge said he had lobbied the Department of Transport and Main Roads to take QantasLink's handling of Charleville flights into consideration when awarding the next contract for the flight route.
The Brisbane-Roma-Charleville route is one of seven regional Queensland routes regulated by the Queensland government.
Contracts will be decided next month and begin on January 1, 2022.
"We're getting to the pointy end of the tender process," Cr Radnedge said.
"[I want] everyone that has involvement in this, has a clear picture moving forward of what the expected service is to be to these regional areas, and be able to deliver them.
