Darwin-based Airnorth will expand out of Northern Australia for the first time when it commences daily services from Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport to Melbourne from next March.
The flights will be operated by Airnorth’s 76-seat Embraer E170 jets from March 14, with new three-times-weekly Wellcamp-Cairns services to begin at the same time.
“This initiative provides a much-needed direct link for residents of Toowoomba and surrounding regions to Melbourne and Cairns for both business and leisure travellers alike,”Airnorth chief executive Daniel Bowden said in a statement on Thursday.
“The new flights will also allow passengers from the Toowoomba region to easily connect onto international and other domestic services via Cairns or Melbourne.”
The Bristow Helicopters-owned Airnoth says it will be “seeking to expand current codeshare arrangements” with Qantas to cover the new Wellcamp services, which will go on sale from early January.
The new Melbourne and Cairns flights will take to three the major domestic destinations served from Wellcamp after QantasLink commenced services from Sydney to the newly-opened airport in November 2014.
“We have had overwhelming support from within our region and we can now offer weekday and weekend getaways to three of Australia’s most popular destinations,” Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport general manager Phil Gregory said in a statement.
“We are also confident we will continue the growth of the visiting friends and relatives market as more people will have direct access into the region.”
Comments (13)
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Stephen
says:Rex serves additional western Queensland destinations from the airport.
Josh
says:Great news! It’s good to see that Qantaslink doesn’t own the regional world.
Barry
says:Awesome! Thanks Airnorth!! Can’t wait to book…
Michael van der Spek
says:Are you paying any attention Bendigo City Council, this is the type of service you should be trying to attract, I’m thinking Bendigo-Adelaide, Bendigo-Sydney
random
says:Good for the people of Toowoomba and the Darling Downs. Nice that it is a regional carrier but one with code-share potential.
Surprising however that Cairns was chosen over Townsville, which is an existing Air North port that would give business, government, tourism and Defence connectivity rather than primarily just tourism based services.
Perhaps Rex might yet look to connect its physically isolated northern base at Townsville with its southern networks through Wellcamp. Newcastle-Wellcamp is untapped by a major carrier, but big enough to give a steady yield.
Kevin and Kay Williams
says:We are so happy to hear this good news And so will our kids in Victoria
Peter Terrill
says:Toowoomba is on the verge of a boom…new airport, new second range crossing, new Grand Central shopping complex, new library, new hotels, many new homes and units, new school extensions, new hospital extensions and a bright future. Come and live the good life in the Garden City. The climate is perfect.
GBRGB
says:Agree with Random, thought Townsville would have been the best fit for this service and get some of the govt, mining sector, and Wagners have quite a considerable business presence in Townsville. already. Air North is not a cheap seat either with most fares around the $300 on current services so not sure the tourism market will pay that. Townsville could look at Jetgo, it’s new Townsville- Rocky – Gold Coast service is working well.
Mattsey
says:I was quite shocked when I heard Airnorth was gonna be doing services to Melbourne especially when they’re a Darwin based airline. When I heard about the new airport at Toowoomba, I thought it would be mainly Virgin Australia and Qantas flying out of there, however Virgin Australia is yet to organise flights out of there, Qantaslink are only using Dash 8 which I was expecting they would use jets. But good news for Airnorth, I hope they make a go of this service.
Mac Carter
says:Hopefully Airnorth will base their E Jet at Toowoomba and thereby create a crew / maintaince base there as well.
This is great with respect to further decentralisation of population away from the major coastal cities.
We must repopulate the inland of our country if Australia is to survive long term.
How about a service that would service Toowoomba / Townsville / Cairns using the E Jet ?
How about it Airnorth?
I can remember when there was at least 6 return jet services between Townsville and Cairns per day.
Propeller driven aircraft are better than no air service, however, a fast jet service is needed urgently to service the Townsville / Cairns route.
How about it Airnorth ?
Ron
says:I’m glad to see AA refer to it as “Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport”, not the silly “Brisbane West Wellcamp” which they deemed fit to name it. They don’t call Maroochydore “Brisbane North”, nor the Gold Coast “Brisbane South”, so why the hell should Toowoomba be “Brisbane West”? My suspicion is that it’s a marketing ploy to attract international air freight. But hey, what does it matter that Brisbane is still another 2 hours away on a bumpy road?
Best wishes to Airnorth by the way.
Regina Northeast
says:Can you leave your vehicle at the Brisbane Wellcamp Airport for approx seven days ? If yes, what do you charge ?
Alan & Roz
says:We are delighted with the news of a direct flight from Melbourne to Toowoomba – makes it so much easier to visit our relatives. Anxious though for staff at ticketing in Darwin to be advised as to when bookings will be available as our queries are met with a total lack of information on their part.