Families reunited as Qantas’ first Melbourne flight touches down in Coffs
Passengers today disembarked off the first Qantas flight direct from Melbourne and embraced their families.
Coffs Harbour
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Sporting compulsory face masks, passengers disembarked off the first Qantas flight direct from Melbourne and embraced their families.
Mayor Denise Knight, who was at Coffs Harbour Airport to welcome the flight last week, said the scenes were “enough to bring a tear to your eye.”
Qantas’ first of its daily flights between the two destinations was at 90 per cent capacity, and was given a ceremonial ‘water arch’ welcome when it landed.
Qantas was however forced to delay the start of its second new route - between Coffs Harbour and Brisbane - for a least a month due to the COVID-19 situation. The first flight has been rescheduled to April 29.
“You can see people thinking oh my gosh, we haven’t been here in ages,” Ms Knight said on Thursday.
“This is fantastic not just for tourism, but businesses – we’re just going to thrive now. The airlines have been in a very hard position but it just shows how much confidence they’ve got in our region.”
Qantas’ newly introduced service, which is being operated by a 110-seater Boeing 717 jet, marks a revival for the airline after it had discontinued its Coffs to Melbourne route around six years ago, which was then taken on by Tigerair.
However it’s been almost a year since the region had a direct service with the now-defunct Tigerair exiting the Coffs Coast in April 2020 to the dismay of locals – who went so far as to sign a petition calling on the airline to reconsider.
Also at the arrivals building to welcome the first flight was Gareth Williamson, the General Manager of Aviation Business Development for Agilis Airports.
Agilis Airports, which also manages Sunshine Coast Airport, is the management group that will soon oversee the operations of the council-owned asset once Palisade Investment Partners takes on the long-term lease.
Mr Williamson told The Advocate that the group will likely take over management later this month.
“At the moment we’re working in partnership with Council to both manage the airfield, and provide management services to look after the team already here in order to have a smooth transition,” he said.
Mr Williamson said the company believed the airport will play a critical role in helping the Coffs Coast reach its potential, and had high hopes for the future of domestic travel despite the impacts of COVID-19.
He said the new Qantas service was already proving popular with strong bookings over the holidays.
“It’s been a challenging period of time in the last 12 months, but we are definitely seeing very positive signs.
“Qantas has actually launched about 31 new services in the last six months, and Coffs Harbour is seeing two of those. The airlines are becoming more confident that domestic travel is going to have a fantastic year.”
The new Coffs Harbour and Melbourne service will provide 80,000 seats between the two destinations each year.
Qantas has also from today boosted capacity on its Sydney to Coffs Harbour route, upgrading one flight a day to the larger Boeing 717 jet.
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