End of the road for Blue Mountains tourism transport business

One of Australia’s longest running tourism businesses, the internationally recognised Blue Mountain Explorer Bus fleet, is the latest business victim of COVID-19 with operations halted and its bus fleet for sale.

One of the distinctive red double-decker hop-on/hop-off sightseeing buses has already been sold, with another five on the market.

Advising that the fleet is not sustainable without international visitors, Jason Cronshaw Managing Director of fleet owner Fantastic Aussie Tours (FAT) says that the domestic tour and coach company, cannot afford to maintain the fleet without governmental help.

Advising that the indefinite closure of the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus followed several closures during Coronavirus lockdowns and the 2019/20 bushfires before that, had made the fleet had become untenable, Cronshaw stated “while of course we’re thankful for the recent NSW Government rescue package, it won’t save us.

"Without international tourists it’s just not viable.

"We’re running a 77-seater bus with one or two people. It costs us $3.50 per kilometre on a 26 kilometre circuit and tickets are $49 for an all-day pass. The maths just doesn’t add up."

FAT has operated the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus fleet around Katoomba and Leura since 1986 and conducted sightseeing tours and charters around Australia for two generations since 1974.

It was forced to close its Blue Mountains Explorer Bus sightseeing run for 27 days over December 2019 and January 2020 period because of the bushfires and reported a 60% drop in passengers as a result.

During the weekend of 14th and 15th March last year, numbers plummeted another 50% almost overnight because of Coronavirus.

Four days later (on 19th March 2020), Explorer Bus services were slashed from 15 a day to seven, with 2.5 drivers a day to one.

Recently, the double-decker fleet has run only on weekends and holidays, and the average weekly driver roster of 350 hours had dropped to 78.

Meanwhile parent company FAT suffered an 85% drop in charter work and forward cancellations from schools and corporates and other group travel until October. Work had picked up recently but came to an abrupt halt with the latest lockdown order.

Images: Decals being removed from one of the Blue Mountains Explorer Bus fleet (top) and the business in pre-COVID times (below), Credit: David Hill, Deep Hill Media.