Virgin Australia has cut several regional air routes as its new owners move to turn the struggling airline around during an aviation downturn.

The airline is streamlining its fleet to primarily rely on Boeing 737 aircraft, scrapping smaller planes that commonly serviced regional destinations.

“With the changes to simplifying our fleet and ongoing subdued customer demand, we have been required to make some adjustments to our network,” a Virgin Australia spokesperson told SBS News.  

“We remain committed to regional Australia and we plan to continue to fly to 20 regional destinations in Australia."

The spokesperson said affected guests who booked with the airline will be contacted, while those who booked with a travel agent will need to contact them directly. 

The airline is currently not flying routes between the axed destinations, after entering administration in April.

The group was weighed down by billions of dollars worth of debt before the coronavirus pandemic, which has decimated the global aviation market.

Uncertainty over interstate border closures has also seen demand for domestic travel slump.

Under new owners Bain Capital, the airline has flagged plans to cut more then 3,000 jobs, or around one third of its workforce.

Subsidiary budget airline TigerAir has also been shut down.

Qantas reported a $1.96 billion annual loss in August, prompting the airline to announce 2,500 jobs will go from its workforce, but thankfully they will still fly to Port Macquarie !