It has now been nine months since the Brindabella Airlines Armidale-Brisbane service took off, re-establishing direct passenger flights to the north. Brindabella Airlines’ Chief Commercial Officer, Fabrice Binet, swapped wings for wheels recently, touring the area and having meetings of importance to the future of the air service. Mr Binet touched base with University and Armidale business community leaders, with increased UNE support considered to be very important to the growth of the service.
Brindabella’s Armidale-Brisbane service is not likely to have its wings clipped.
“It has proven to be viable because of the times that it is operated; a single daily service allows us to control costs,” Mr Binet said.
Easter delivered the strongest Armidale traffic that Brindabella has seen to date.
“We would like to strengthen demand, every day of the week. We currently have high demand on Thursdays, Fridays and Mondays. We would like patronage to increase such that the demand on these days is consistent throughout the week.”
The service started with a 30-seat aircraft. Demand led to a downturn around Christmas-time, to an 18-seat Metroliner. A larger aircraft might soon be used for the higher demand days.
Mr Binet ruled out the introduction of ‘working day schedules’ (flights to Brisbane in the early morning and late afternoon/evening) this financial year.
Operational price hikes of concern to the service were said to be the Carbon Tax, increases in Airport taxes in Brisbane and Armidale, plus the cost of fuel. “These cost factors have prevented us from increasing flight frequencies for most of our services, not only Armidale,” Mr Binet said.
The visiting Brindabella Airlines executive expressed gratitude to the local community for its support over the first nine months of the Armidale-Brisbane service.
Story: Gary Fry
