Avalon Airport eyes return to pre-pandemic domestic flight levels

A return to the pre-pandemic level of domestic flights is within reach in just a matter of weeks for Avalon Airport.

Domestic flights at Avalon Airport are running at their highest levels since March 2020 and are expected to return to pre-pandemic levels within two months.

Sydney flights are ramping up after the service was suspended due to the NSW coronavirus outbreak late last year.

Flights on the route recommenced at the end of January.

Jetstar is currently operating up to 25 return services per week between Avalon and Sydney, increasing to its pre-pandemic level of 38 return services per week by Easter.

In December, Jetstar was operating 21 return services per week between Avalon and Sydney.

Its services between Gold Coast and Avalon are operating daily, while Adelaide flights are set to resume at the end of March.

Avalon Airport CEO Justin Giddings said domestic flights at Avalon were running at their highest level since March 31 last year, in the early stages of the pandemic.

Domestic flights are currently running at just under 50 per cent of normal capacity, and will be bolstered to 50 per cent next week, he said.

Avalon Airport CEO Justin Giddings. Picture: Peter Ristevski

And domestic travel at the airport is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by April, when Sydney flights have increased further and Adelaide flights have kicked off.

He said returning to pre-pandemic domestic levels was exciting, but the prospect has previously been thwarted on multiple occasions.

“I’m just hopeful everything is controlled and I think it is,” Mr Giddings said.

“It’s going to be a nervous winter.”

Mr Giddings said traditionally this is a “pretty quiet” time of year, particularly with people not travelling for business.

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But he said being at 100 per cent capacity around Easter time was “very important”.

Interstate commercial flights were suspended from Avalon for nine months in 2020 due to the pandemic.

They resumed with Sydney flights in December, which were then paused within days.

Almost a million domestic passengers passed through Avalon Airport in 2019.

Jetstar has carried more than 10 million people to and from Avalon Airport since 2004.

Originally published as Avalon Airport eyes return to pre-pandemic domestic flight levels