NEWCASTLE Airport has missed out on being included in a minimum domestic flight network underwritten by the federal government, but management hope to prove there is demand for air travel out of Williamtown.
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Qantas and Virgin are set to resume operating domestic flights on a number of crucial metropolitan and regional routes after the government agreed to underwrite the services up to $165 million on Friday.
The network includes all state and territory capital cities and major regional centres such as Albury, Coffs Harbour, Dubbo, Kalgoorlie, Mildura, Port Lincoln, Rockhampton, Tamworth, Townsville and Wagga Wagga.
But Newcastle, despite 40 per cent of the 1.3 million annual passengers that pass through the airport doing so for business, missed out.
"Our understanding at the moment is that we're not listed in that," Newcastle Airport chief executive officer Dr Peter Cock told the Newcastle Herald on Friday.
"There was 12 regions and we haven't been listed, but it's moving pretty fast the government's response and that is why we want to be able to put the case of demand from our region to airlines and government."
After QantasLink stopped flying late last week, FlyPelican is the only airline operating out of Newcastle Airport. Virgin, Jetstar and Regional Express all abandoned the Hunter in the weeks prior.
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Dr Cock said there was demand for flights out of Newcastle to places like Brisbane and Melbourne where essential workers travel to, either as a final destination or for connecting flights.
"A quarter of our passengers [annually] travel with us more than 11 times a year. That shows they're either frequent business or probably FIFO [fly-in, fly-out] sort of workers," he said.
"So about a quarter, which is quite high, and about 40 per cent of our passengers are business customers.
"So for a regional airport, we get a fair bit of traffic."
Dr Cock said the Hunter's essential workers that need to go interstate "deserve to be able to get easy travel to and from their place of work".
"The government policy is to keep Australia at work, and I think the mining industry is so critical,"he said.
"It's the export industry driving the economy now.
"So you hope those workers ... whether they're travelling in and staying where they work [long term], or whether they're driving down to Sydney and having to do two-and-a-half to three hours each way ... there's fatigue issues around that and every mine will have a different solution ... but essential workers should be given the easiest time possible, and that's what we're about."
Any worker who regularly travels, or needs to travel, to other parts of the country and could be flying from Newcastle Airport if there were flights, should visit the airport's website or express interest via email.
Businesses and organisations that have an interest in flying workers from the airport are also being asked to contribute.
"We want the data behind us and then we'll push it hard with the government because I think it does align with what the government wants," Dr Cock said.
"Then we can get an airline interested. We just need to know if there is demand, and we think there probably is.
"We need to confirm that and then we want to go hard at lobbying for this region."
FlyPelican continues to operate flights to Canberra, Dubbo and Ballina.
- EMAIL: corporateaffairs@newcastleairport.com.au
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