Push for Daily Morning flight to Brisbane

Whitsundays Online

Tourism Whitsundays is about to start lobbying the airlines for a daily morning flight in and out of the Whitsundays.

Currently, Proserpine (Whitsunday Coast) is serviced by 2 daily flights to and from Brisbane: Virgin Blue arrives at 2.20pm and Jetstar at 6.20pm.

Anyone wishing to travel to Brisbane in the morning must drive 2 hours to Mackay to catch the 6am prop-jet, which means having to get up at around 3.00am, and then setting off along the Bruce Highway before dawn.

Tourism Whitsundays will commence surveying passengers to see if there is a strong case for a morning flight in and out of the Whitsundays.

An interesting concept would be a morning flight from Proserpine to Brisbane, maybe via Hamilton Island. (Rex currently do a similar route on the NSW South Coast with their Moruya - Merimbula - Sydney service).

We pre-empted Tourism Whitsundays' intentions several weeks ago and asked the 'newcomer' airline to Mackay, Regional Express (Rex), if they were considering services to Proserpine, especially a morning commuter flight.

On 16 October this year, Charlene Liang of Rex's Corporate Communications Team said "There are no network expansion plans currently being considered and this will be assessed further during 2009/2010 along with a number of commercial and economic considerations. The global economic landscape is extremely volatile and Rex is therefore exercising some cautious conservatism at the present time."

ed: I have to agree with Peter O'Reilly that driving 2 hours, firstly in darkness, then straight into a rising sun, is not a smart or safe way to do business in Brisbane or interstate, but we have no other option except to leave the night before. I personally have done this 'run' about a dozen times, and have missed the flights several times due to either hitting a kangaroo, or the road closed due to a serious accident or floods.

Sourced from ABC North QLD News - Melissa Maddison