Airnorth Brings 10 Extra Direct Flights Weekly to Toowoomba

27th Dec 2015

Airnorth, the largest Australian regional airline, announced on Friday a deal to bring 10 extra direct flights into Toowoomba on a weekly basis.

One of these will be a direct flight between Toowoomba and Melbourne.

Apart from the Toowoomba-Melbourne service, Airnorth will also operate three return flights to Cairns. All of these will use Embraer E170 jets. This plane has a cruising speed of 820km/h, is 36 meters long and can carry a total of 80 people ? four crew members (two pilots and two flight attendants) and 76 passengers.

Airnorth hasn't yet revealed booking details for its new services, but should do so early in 2016.

Toowoomba's Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport is still relatively young, having been opened only a year or so ago, but it already runs flights from QantasLink and Rex Airlines. It can accommodate aircrafts up to Boeing 747 in size.

General Manager of the airport Phil Gregory had this to say about Airnorths' announcement:

"Airnorth is the leading airline provider in northern Australia and we are delighted to welcome them on board. We are extremely excited to be able to offer our customers direct return flights to two of Australia's premier travel destinations."

He added:

"We have had overwhelming support from within our region and we can now offer weekday and weekend getaways to three of Australia's most popular destinations."

Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport is the first privately funded airport in Australia and is in the ownership of Wagner family.

In the first 12 months, 70,000 passengers have used the facilities of Toowoomba Airport. However, Mr. Wagner has bigger plans for it, including "stealing the thunder" from Brisbane Airport.

About this, he said:

"Absolutely we do but they won't notice it. You've got to keep in mind if we got to a million passengers a year, which I think we will in pretty short order over the next couple of years, that will be similar to a Mackay or a Newcastle."

For Airnorth, Melbourne will be the first southern route. The carrier largely operates in the northern parts of Australia, especially around Townsville, north Queensland and between Darwin, North Territory and Perth, Western Australia.