That ICPA (Aust) advocate to the Federal Government to work with all Australian airlines to offer capped or discount fares to families of Geographically Isolated students for travel to/from boarding school.
The Northern Territory has a large number of Geographically Isolated students living remotely with their families who need to attend educational institutions interstate to complete their education. The Northern Territory has a very limited number of boarding school places available for students, therefore, a large number of families have no choice but to send their children to boarding schools interstate. Choices for Tertiary and Trade training are equally limited. NT residents can access the Qantas Resident Fares but only for flights from Alice Springs to Darwin (return) or Alice Springs to Adelaide (return). These are useful and much appreciated but more options are needed.
There are a large number of families not even living close to Darwin (up to approx 1,000km away) that have children studying interstate in locations such as Townsville, Charters Towers, Rockhampton, Toowoomba, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne who need to drive huge distances to either Darwin or Alice Springs to be able to fly to the school location. There are two/three airlines operating the NT and during the hugely popular ‘dry season’, parents are competing with tourists for flights that can range from $300 - $3,000 one way to get children to and from boarding school. There is no consistency for reasonable fares for parents, particularly during the peak dry season.
The high cost of airline travel also inhibits families from travelling during school term to visit their children further isolating the families from each other and can mean that families often miss key events in the children’s school life.
