Port Macquarie Airport
Port Macquarie Airport is an airport in Port Macquarie, New South Wales, Australia. The airport is west of the city centre and is owned and managed by the Port Macquarie-Hastings Council (ABN 11 236 901 601) on behalf of its owners - the constituents of the Hastings. The ownership is not to be confused with the Port Macquarie Airport Proprietary Limited (ABN 88 002 323 122). The airport had 222,534 revenue passengers, the 32nd busiest in Australia, and 4,821 aircraft movements in the 2017-2018. Virgin Australia. On 4 February 2008, Virgin Blue (now Virgin Australia) commenced  direct scheduled services between Sydney and Port Macquarie. The flights operated daily in the morning. The service used to be operated by an Embraer E-170 aircraft, and was the first scheduled jet service for the airport. Connections were offered to all major Australian cities via Sydney. An increase to twice-daily service commenced 4 August 2008. Competition by Virgin resulted in a significant drop in fare prices for the Port Macquarie - Sydney route, where Qantas previously operated a monopoly after Hazelton Airlines ceased services in 2001. On 28 July 2011, Virgin Australia (in partnership with Skywest Airlines) announced its intention  to commence a daily Brisbane to Port Macquarie service from October 2011. On 19 October 2011, Virgin Australia's ATR 72 departed on its first flight to Brisbane. The airline also announced that, as a result of the removal of Embraer 170 aircraft from its fleet, Sydney to Port Macquarie services would also be operated by ATR72 aircraft. Both routes have since been withdrawn due to the removal of ATR72 aircraft from the Virgin Australia fleet in 2020. Aircraft operations. Connections to Brisbane (via Coffs Harbour) by Brindabella Airlines ceased 31 December 2010, citing poor loads on the route. Despite  this, Virgin Australia entered the route on 19 October 2011 as a daily service with their ATR72 aircraft.