Norfolk Air to fly to Newcastle

The Chief Minister of Norfolk Island, David Buffett, has announced that Norfolk Air is to further expand its services to and from Australia. Starting on Monday 7th May 2007, Norfolk Air will operate a weekly service between Norfolk Island and Newcastle.

"The decision to commence this new service was taken after considerable research", Mr Buffett said. "In December 2006, I visited Newcastle with Minister for Finance Neville Christian and our advisers to inspect Newcastle Airport facilities and to enter into discussions with the airport's senior management. That visit followed some earlier investigations and visits to the area, and dialogue with travel industry operators from the region. The Government has subsequently received a business study on possible operations to Newcastle and has researched demographic data for the Newcastle, Hunter, Central Coast and surrounding regions. We are now satisfied that the area has great potential to provide sufficient numbers of visitors to Norfolk Island to justify regular flights by Norfolk Air".

Mr Buffett said that the new service to Newcastle would complement recently announced increases in flights to both Sydney and Brisbane on Fridays. In line with the findings of the Econtech report into Norfolk Island sustainability, the Government had established targets for substantial growth in visitor numbers. "The addition of the Newcastle service will bring the annual total of incoming passenger seats from Australia to 47,500", the Chief Minister said. "It is a further important step toward achieving the growth in visitor numbers identified in the Econtech study".

Subject to regulatory approval, Norfolk Air will fly to Newcastle each Monday from 7th May, departing Norfolk Island at 9.00 a.m. and returning to the Island around 3.30 p.m. Flight schedules are now being loaded into airline computer systems, and it is expected that tickets will be available within a few days.

"Norfolk Island Government has been pleased with the positive reaction to this initiative from local authorities in the region and from air and travel industry operators", Mr Buffett said. "Plans are well advanced for innovative promotional and marketing programmes to promote the new service. Further details of these activities will be made public in the near future".

9 February 2007