Qantas’ future in Toowoomba revealed

QANTAS began operating from Winton 100 years ago this year, and just a few years later began operating one of Australia’s first commercial flights between Brisbane and Toowoomba.

QANTAS began operating from Winton 100 years ago this year, and just a few years later began operating one of Australia's first commercial flights between Brisbane and Toowoomba.

The airline now operates 12 flights a week between Toowoomba's Wellcamp Airport and Sydney, upgrading from the de Havilland DH50s of the 1920s to the Bombardier Dash 8 today.

When asked whether Qantas could expand the number of services to and from Toowoomba, Mr Joyce remained open to the possibility.

"I think we'll always keep an eye on that, and we're always looking at new regional operations," Mr Joyce said.

"We have a number of aircraft coming back from New Zealand from the Jetstar family's New Zealand operations that we're looking at how we deploy them at the moment.

"We've made some announcements, but we're still continuing to review where those aircraft can be used.

"So if there is the demand, we will put capacity in, but there's a lot of other regional communities that are asking for the demand so Qantas always has to keep a good balance."

The Qantas Group last year announced Jetstar regional services in New Zealand, which utilised five de Havilland Q300s, would cease.

Mr Joyce was in town this week for the opening of the Qantas Group Pilot Academy at Wellcamp Airport.

Meanwhile, a push is under way to launch a direct service between Toowoomba and Mackay.

Mackay Airport general manager Garry Porter said the north Queensland airport was currently in discussions with airlines about launching flights between the two cities, so residents could use Toowoomba, instead of Brisbane, as a transit hub between their ultimate destination.

"Qantas runs services from Toowoomba to Sydney," Mr Porter said.

"So rather than having (flights) just to Brisbane, it makes sense that we could actually move traffic through Toowoomba as well."

A similar model is used by Airnorth on its Melbourne, Toowoomba, Townsville route.

- with Ashley Pillhoffer