Cloudy skies in the nation’s capital have greeted the arrival of FlyPelican’s inaugural Canberra-Dubbo service.
Flight FP635, operated by 19-seat Jetstream 32 VH-OTE, landed a little after 1715 local time, after a one-hour trip from Dubbo.
It is the regional carrier’s second route from Canberra, having started nonstop services to Newcastle in June 2015.
FlyPelican has scheduled seven flights a week on the Canberra-Dubbo route, with two flights a day on Mondays and Fridays, as well as a single return service on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
It is the only airline offering nonstop flights between Canberra and Dubbo.
“The airline has already seen strong support on its services from Newcastle which started on 1 June last year and we hope the new service from Dubbo will also be well patronised,” Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron said in a statement.
“This service opens the whole district west of Canberra to tourism and business”.
Further, Byron said the service offered residents of central northern NSW an alternative to Sydney for international travel, following the start of Singapore Airlines’ Singapore-Canberra-Wellington flights in September 2016.
FlyPelican chief executive Paul Graham has said previously the flights were timed to suit both leisure and business passengers.
“The objective was to ultimately continue and have a seamless service from Newcastle to Dubbo, and then through to Canberra at optimum morning and evening times to support both the business and the leisure markets,” Graham said in December.
Further, Graham said there was “potential to introduce a Sunday service if the demand is evident”.
Canberra is the seventh destination from Dubbo Airport. In addition to FlyPelican’s Newcastle services, Jetgo flies from the central northern NSW city to Brisbane and Melbourne (Essendon), Regional Express serves Cobar, Broken Hill and Sydney, and QantasLink has nonstop flights to Sydney.
