Direct flights to Melbourne are making a comeback
A year on since Tigerair controversially pulled its services, the region will again have a direct flight to Melbourne.
Coffs Harbour
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A year on since the now defunct Tigerair controversially pulled its services from the region, the Coffs Coast will once again have a direct flight to Melbourne.
In a win for the region Qantas announced it will launch direct flights to both Melbourne and Brisbane, and will also increase the aircraft size one of its daily Sydney services from April 1.
This timing coincides with the expected start of the lease of Coffs Harbour Airport to Palisade Investment Partners.
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The new services launching in time for the Easter holidays include daily flights between Melbourne and Coffs, and four weekly flights between Brisbane and Coffs.
The capacity boost will deliver around 2,600 additional seats for Coffs every week - or 135,000 seats a year.
QantasLink CEO John Gissing said these new routes would provide people with more options to holiday in their own backyard, as COVID-19 continues to put a damper on international flights.
"We want to make it even easier for travellers to holiday around Australia," he said.
"The beautiful coastal hub of Coffs Harbour continues to be incredibly popular with travellers, so it makes sense to provide direct connections from other capital cities to make it even more accessible."
Coffs Harbour Mayor Denise Knight welcomed the reinstatement of a direct flight from Coffs to Melbourne.
"Having regular flights to Melbourne restored and increased services on both the Sydney and Brisbane routes is going to provide a fantastic opportunity to boost tourism and the broader economy of the region," she said.
Coffs Harbour locals previously had access to cheap direct flights to Melbourne with Tigerair, however the budget airline announced in February last year that it would completely withdraw its services from the region.
An airline spokesperson said the routes were no longer "commercially viable" - sparking outrage in the community, and even leading to a petition signed by thousands who called on Tigerair to reconsider.
Owned by Virgin Air, the low cost carrier was however completely discontinued in August 2020.
Coffs Harbour has long had access to a direct flight to Brisbane with Link Airways - formerly known as Fly Corporate - since 2016.
The newly secured Qantas Services come after the council voted to privatise Coffs Harbour Airport and the Enterprise Park development, and execute the lease in November.
Councillors debated for almost an hour before coming to a tied vote on executing the controversial lease, which was brought over the line with the mayor's casting vote.
"This is about the future of this town, not whether you're paying more or less parking fees. Let's just get on with it, please," Cr Michael Adendorff had said.
It has been more than three years since the airport lease process first began, with a succession of decisions by councillors having led up to the ultimate vote.
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