The end of regular international flights by Qantas from Perth came without warning and is a blow to Western Australia's tourism, the state government says.
Qantas' Perth to Singapore route has been cancelled by the airline as part of the massive restructure announced on Thursday which will lead to the loss of 5000 jobs.
The airline explained the scrapping of the route as a "tough, but necessary measure" to strengthen the ailing business. It will fly for the last time in May.
Tourism minister Liza Harvey admitted she had not been told by the company of the intention to dump the route.
"Was I informed prior to this morning's announcement? No I wasn't, but I have been briefed today," she told parliament.
Ms Harvey said the news was a blow to WA's ambition to raise the worth of the state's tourism industry to $12 billion by 2020.
And it also dented a deal announced last September, where the state government signed a $7.65 million marketing deal with Qantas involving advertising in tourism markets such as Singapore.
Ms Harvey denied the airline's move undermined that deal.
"We have a broad strategy with respect to our co-operative marketing arrangements with a range of airlines," she said.
Qantas said WA remained an important market, with a possibility of seasonal services on international routes on demand.
"Our new seasonal Perth-Auckland service added almost 8,000 seats over the busy Christmas and summer holiday period to what was a monopoly route," the company said in a statement.
"This was very popular with our customers and this is the kind of opportunity we'll look to do more of in future."
Qantas said they will also operate a number of supplementary services to cater for customers travelling over the peak holiday season in July.
