Regional airports in Victoria are gaining a boost in services as QantasLink has announced it will launch flights between Mildura and Sydney, and increase the number of services to Bendigo, helping to support tourism to the region.
From 29 March 2020, QantasLink will operate flights four days per week between Sydney and Mildura with a 74-seat Q400 turboprop aircraft, offering more than 30,000 seats each year.
The link will be the only direct connection between Sydney and Mildura and will save travellers around two hours compared to flying via Melbourne, the airline said.
“As Australia’s largest regional airline, we know the value of connecting country cities and we’re proud to be connecting the Sunraysia region to Sydney once again,” said QantasLink CEO John Gissing adding that the airline is “backing” regional Victoria with the new and additional services.
“Together with the Mildura Rural City Council, we’re promoting the greater Mildura region to travellers across Australia and the world as a great destination to visit,” he added. “Mildura has a rich history and is home to some of Australia’s finest produce and wineries and we know it will be a popular destination for holidaymakers as well.”
Welcoming the return of the Mildura-Sydney service, Federal Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster called it a “great win” for the region, explaining: “The Mildura Airport handles over 253,000 passengers a year, and we know that many of them link up with flights to Sydney. By offering this direct flight, Qantas are supplying a service to many residents of Mallee who travel to Sydney for work and leisure.”
“The flight time of 1 hour and 50 minutes represents a reduction in current travel time between Mildura and Sydney via Melbourne, easing the burden on travellers and offering an improvement on the cost of flights,” she added. “I want to thank Qantas for the commitment they are showing to our region.”
The new route follows the launch of QantasLink’s Bendigo to Sydney service with took off in April. Responding to high demand on the route, the airline is adding three new weekly return services from 30 March 2020, bringing the total number of return flights to 10 per week.
QantasLink’s Gissing said: “Demand between Bendigo and Sydney has far exceeded our expectations, which is why we’re adding additional services for the second time since we launched the service.”
The City of Greater Bendigo welcomed the news, with chief executive officer Craig Niemann commenting: “This decision by Qantas is in response to growth in the market, particularly people coming from Sydney, which is really exciting and demonstrates it is not just local people using the service for business and leisure purposes.”
“On average, about 2,000 people a month fly between Bendigo and Sydney, so the service continues to exceed our expectations and we appreciate the support from Qantas to provide a flexible flight schedule that makes it easier for people to travel between the two cities,” he added.
According to the airline, these new and additional routes are estimated to inject more than $3 million into the local economies in Mildura and Bendigo.
