iscover
Speculation is mounting about potential flights between the NSW cities of Newcastle and Orange after an Orange City Council meeting last week.
Asked about a direct service linking the city in Central Western NSW to Newcastle, which would bypass the need for a connection through Sydney, Orange City Council’s director of corporate and commercial services, Jen Sharp, said they were “still in negotiations”.
This content is available exclusively to Australian Aviation members.
A monthly membership is only $5.99 or save with our annual plans.
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
- Unlimited access to all Australian Aviation digital content
- Access to the Australian Aviation app
- Australian Aviation quarterly print & digital magazines
- Access to In Focus reports every month on our website
- Access to our Behind the Lens photo galleries and other exclusive content
- Daily news updates via our email bulletin
“We’ve got some things that we’re not quite ready to have in a public forum just yet but we will be able to share that with you very soon,” she told Cr Kevin Duffy, as reported by Australian Community Media (ACM).
Orange Regional Airport is currently served only by QantasLink and Link Airways, with a Qantas spokesperson not confirming to ACM reports that the airline is in talks with council about increasing the number of flights.
“QantasLink is committed to supporting the residents and businesses in Orange,” a Qantas spokesperson said.
“We currently have enough capacity on our existing flights to support the expected increase in demand. We’ll continue to closely monitor these routes and can adjust schedules if required.
“It is a challenging period for regional aviation with costs, including labour, airport charges and government air traffic control fees, rising faster than the rate of inflation, while fuel costs remain elevated.”
The potential for direct flights to Newcastle comes after Rex suspended its Orange-Sydney service at the end of last month, citing fuel costs and low demand.
“The environment of entrenched high fuel prices driven by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, together with lack of demand, do not make these routes commercially viable at this time. Both destinations continue to be served by another carrier,” the airline said in an October statement.
“This decision is part of the optimisation of Rex’s schedule with the ongoing situation in the Middle East affecting all airlines globally.
“Affected customers will be contacted directly. Customers booked to travel on or after 25 October will be offered a full refund, or the option to rebook on an alternative Rex service at no additional cost, subject to availability.
“Rex will monitor the situation closely and consider lifting the suspension of services once fuel prices decrease to a level that makes it commercially viable for flights to resume.”
Discussions about linking Newcastle directly to Orange are not new, with the council’s then airport community committee chair, Cr Jack Evans, announcing a survey of Orange residents on the subject in 2024.
“From conversations I’ve had with a number of local business owners and the support letters Council has received, it’s clear that people would utilise this service if it was available to them,” Cr Evans said at the time.
“Quite a lot of people are already frequently travelling between Orange and Newcastle for a range of reasons, so it makes sense for the two cities to be connected by air.
“We already know there are some strong connections between Orange and Newcastle in education and industry. We also know there are some similarities across sectors such as mining and winemaking.”
Orange City Council, Qantas and Newcastle Airport have been contacted for comment.
Want to see more stories from trusted news sources?
Make Australian Aviation a preferred news source on Google.
Click here to add Australian Aviation as a preferred news source.
