AIRLINES are starting to cut back on flights to and from Tasmania, but the tourism industry is optimistic fewer services will be cut than in previous winters.
Tourism Industry Council Tasmania chief executive officer Luke Martin said all the additional flights were never going to be all year round.
``We have to be realistic, they put on an enormous amount of capacity. The challenge or the opportunity is to minimise how much they pull back,'' Mr Martin said.
Launceston Airport is predicting capacity during autumn and the start of winter will be 15 per cent up on the same time last year.
General manager Pamela Graham said airlines had given no indication they were planning to make big changes to their scheduling. Qantas is expected to continue offering four return flights between Launceston and Melbourne a day.
Ms Graham said airlines that upped their service over summer had been rewarded with strong patronage that would help Tasmania's chances of hanging onto more flights.
She said a reduction after the record number of seats added over summer was unavoidable, but there had not been a significant reduction in service so far.
``It's usually a more gradual process, you always know in May, June there's going to be less. In saying that it's important to note that's it's not an absolute thing. A lot will depend on forward bookings.''
Ms Graham said the strength of future bookings would rely partly on the effectiveness of tourism marketing campaigns.
Tourism Tasmania will next week launch a new brand and autumn advertising promotion and Jetstar announced yesterday it would promote visiting Tasmania's Wilderness World Heritage Area.
As part of the new campaign to mark the 30th anniversary of the inscription of the World Heritage Area, Jetstar will provide potential visitors with itineraries to help them plan their visit to the region.
Tourism Minister Scott Bacon said the state's half of the $300,000 campaign would be paid for out of the extra $1 million tourism marketing funding announced as part of the jobs package last year.