Rex to commence Sydney-Newcastle-Ballina flights from Oct 30

[Max C]

3 Flights a day SYD-NTL with 1 of those continuing to Ballina each day.


http://www.rex.com.au/MediaRelease/Files/291_MR%2020110930%20-%20Rex%20to%20Commence%20Newcastle%20Services.pdf

[Jarden S]

That will really hurt Aeropelican. Is there enough demand for to airlines on the short SYD-NTL run. Be better to operate routes with no competition eg ADL-NTL.

[Anthony T]

I like this piece in the press release :

Rex sees substantial growth opportunity between Newcastle and Sydney as the route used to have 100,000 passengers annually, a far cry from today's 30,000.

100,000 pax had to connect via SYD in the old days, these days the other 70,000 go direct. :rolleyes:

[Jack Melon]

Trust me Aeropelican is always full on those SYD-NTL-SYD runs, especially the morning and late night services.

[Arthur T]

Just wondering what sorts of people usually flies between Sydney and Newcastle?
With the new Regional Express services, I am very interested to see the impact on CityRail after 30th Oct...

[AaronBradford]

Probably more the business pax, Arthur. 45 minute flight vs 3 hour train trip or 2.5 hour driving. Either of the latter will really eat up time especially if going just for the day.

[Ryan N]

What if you include check in time and time to get to/from the airport? Both train and driving are as to door to door as you can get.

[James Smith]

Passengers flying overseas to and from Sydney, particularly on airlines that don't fly from other Australian cities would be attracted to this service. If you were flying to Singapore and beyond with Singapore Airlines you could fly from Newcastle to Brisbane or Melbourne to connect but flying to Sydney for an Air Canada flight, for example, may be the only option.

[David F]

I was on a delayed flight from Sydney to Brisbane last weekend. As we taxied toward the terminal in Brisbane, the CSM made an announcement: "The passengers connecting to the flight to Newcastle should head directly to gate 1 as soon as they leave this aircraft."

If people are connecting in Brisbane to fly from Sydney to Newcastle then I would say there is definitely a market on the SYD-NTL route. The only other explanations I can think of are a status run or an international passenger not realising how far out of the way SYD-BNE-NTL was.

EDIT: Haha just did a dummy booking on Qantas LHR-NTL and the suggested routing is LHR-SIN-SYD-BNE-NTL :/

[Tim Bowrey]

Just wondering what sorts of people usually flies between Sydney and Newcastle?

Hey Arthur,

You will find most of the passnegers flying with OT are connecting with QF, more often than not miners to PER then KTA or ADL which are both very popular. Certainly beats driving, parking at getting robbed by SACL's riddiculously high parking fees.

Trust me Aeropelican is always full on those SYD-NTL-SYD runs, especially the morning and late night services.

Jack im not sure what you are basing this info from but I can assure you they aren't 'always full'. I often travelled with OT NTL-SYD-NTL and flights would be on avg. 60% full. We would often get flights departing with only a few passengers yet some would be full.

There are busy days but 'Trust me, always full'... I doubt that.

[Lukas M]

Always full? I counted a whopping 1 person walk of a SYD-NTL flight the other month.

[Jacob P]

So anyone booked on the inaugural flights? I've just booked myself for both be good to catch up if few people come along.

[Max C]

VH-ZLC looks like it's doing a proving run today at ZL9210/9211

[Michael Atkin]

Correct Anthony, ZRE did another today aswell, more of a VIP flight, Lord Mayor of Ballina was onboard todays flight with other important Rex staff, I think it just went to Newcastle and back today though, Yesterdays was SYD-NTL-BNK Rtn.