Coronet Peak has stood down staff and closed its doors until at least Monday while The Remarkables plans to re-open Saturday. In the North Island, Turoa and Whakapapa have both closed facilities. Only Hutt, with a base of 35cm, has ski runs open. Locally, temperatures are also marginal with a few showers likely today, although a little snow is expected above 1700m from tomorrow to Saturday.

The group will close the Mildura maintenance base in northwest Victoria, which supports its regional airline QantasLink, on August 15. QantasLink will exit the Melbourne-Wollongong route as of July 18 and permanently stop the previously suspended QantasLink services between Newcastle and both Melbourne and Sydney. QantasLink's six remaining 36-seat Dash 8 100 aircraft will be retired early, by August. Chief executive Geoff Dixon said the changes followed similar measures already taken in Qantas and Jetstar domestic and international operations in the past fortnight because of unprecedented increases in oil prices. Mr Dixon said the Melbourne-Wollongong services had been underperforming for some time and record fuel prices now made it difficult for QantasLink to continue to operate the older aircraft on the route. Mr Dixon said the retirement of the older Dash 8 100 series aircraft would mean the closure of the Mildura base. "We will work closely with the affected staff in Mildura to minimise redundancies by offering alternative job opportunities at other QantasLink locations," he said. QantasLink will maintain its existing flight operations, cabin and ground crew bases in Melbourne and Mildura to service its remaining network in Victoria, which includes services between Melbourne and Mildura, Devonport, Launceston and Canberra. Jetstar will still service the Newcastle areas with 56 services a week to and from Melbourne, Brisbane and the Gold Coast. QantasLink's affiliate partner, Aeropelican, also offers up to eight services a day between Sydney and Newcastle.