There was a couple wanting to visit family, a Kempsey woman on urgent business and three mates heading to the State of Origin decider.
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The one thing they had in common? They were all onboard the direct flight from Port Macquarie to Brisbane on Qantas flight 1450 on Wednesday November 18.
The national carrier is currently the sole airline to operate between the regional city and Brisbane following Virgin Australia's decision to suspend the route in September.
FlyPelican recently launched direct flights to Canberra. Virgin will operate on a code-sharing agreement only when Alliance Airlines resumes its Port Macquarie service.
Eastern Air Services offers direct flights to Lord Howe Island. Rex Airlines has thrown its hat into the ring and had discussions with Port Macquarie-Hastings Council about flight services for the region.
Qantas will operate up to five times per week with the airline's Q400 turboprop aircraft, offering more than 700 seats on the route each week.
QF1450 will depart Port Macquarie at 2.10pm and arrive in Brisbane at 2.15pm local time - or one hour and five minutes flight time.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qantas has introduced a number of initiatives to encourage customers to book with greater flexibility, as well as to improve safety and peace-of-mind when travelling domestically through its Fly Well program.
QantasLink CEO John Gissing says the carrier wanted to maintain travel options.
"As the national carrier, and the country's largest regional airline, we have an important role to play in keeping regional communities connected and driving tourism," he said.
"These flights will provide Port Macquarie residents with direct flights to Queensland's capital and will help bring more tourists to the region.
"This increased flying maintains travel options for regional communities and helps more of our people get back to work."
For Port Macquarie's Pam and Ken Overton the flight came at an opportune time.
"We are going up to see our daughter, her husband and our grandson.
"This is the first opportunity for us to fly to see them.
"And we are also going to be looking for somewhere to live. We want to be closer to our family.
"It is very pleasing to see this direct flight - it will cut down flying time."
Kempsey's Vicki Vaughan says it is a real benefit to fly direct into Brisbane.
"When I first started looking for flights, I didn't want to have to fly into Sydney and then on to Brisbane," she said.
"I have an urgent family matter and needed to get a booking pretty quickly.
"I was surprised because I thought that every man and his dog would want to get into Brisbane and Queensland."
Port Macquarie's Nathan O'Neill, Adam Bailey and Charlie Redmond took advantage of the first Qantas direct flight to attend the 2020 state of origin decider.
"We are only going because it is a direct flight," Charlie said.
"We are all going up because our wives often go out together so we thought it was time for us to do something too.
"Fortunately, we got the tickets to the final last week and we were lucky to grab those tickets together.
"We also booked the flights at the same time."
The trio's tips - Nathan and Charlie are Blues supporters while Adam was predicting a Queensland winning margin of 10 points.
Port Macquarie-Hastings Council mayor Peta Pinson said she welcomed the direct flights into Brisbane.
"This is a very exciting day for everyone involved," she said.
"Thanks to Qantas for their commitment and their faith in our city. This link to Brisbane is going to be well received and supported.
"We have all been in lockdown and now this is our reward; to get on a plane and travel again.
"I would like to thank Qantas for this service and I hope everyone enjoys this inaugural direct flight."
Council's group manager commercial business units Ashley Grummitt acknowledged Qantas as a long term partner of council and the airport.
"We haven't had a Brisbane flight since March and it is really good to see this flight taking off today," he said.
"It is great to see Qantas has the confidence and support in Port Macquarie.
"Obviously we are trying to rebuild services during COVID."
Qantas will operate two flights a day to Sydney and five flights a week to Brisbane, he said.
Port Macquarie Chamber of Commerce executive officer Mark Wilson says the Qantas decision is great news for the city.
"It certainly opens more opportunities for people to visit our area with the direct flights," he said.
"It was also very handy to have the borders opening (to Queensland).
"Hopefully we get to see many visitors from Queensland to visit Port Macquarie.
"As well, I am hearing of a lot of people making the shift from metropolitan areas to Port Macquarie.
"It would no surprise me to see more people basing themselves here now."
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