Bit off topic but dropped into Ballina again yesterday and there seem to be more RPT then before Covid. Pelican down to Newcastle. Jetstar and Virgin duplicating flights to Melb/Syd. Rex too now. Not many people in the terminal so can guess load factor is low. Radio congested mainly because the poor GRO was being particularly pedantic about passing on every bit of traffic to everyone in turn, so was hard to actually get a call in. (Not blaming the GRO, i am sure they have been put under a lot of pressure and that is his job and they do a bloody goon one in my opinion, just too much RPT.)
I really think Ballina is way over serviced with RPT now. It's a town little more than half the size of Dubbo but every low cost airline is there all the time. Sure Byron is down the road...but so is the Gold Coast and it has a lot more capacity then Ballina.The airline industry is being subsidized by the Govt at the moment, so there is oversupply. A friend said they flew down to Newcastle for $49. No wonder there is congestion if you can fly somewhere for less than a third of the cost of fuel to drive there. Yet the airlines are agitating to lock up the airspace to recreational users so they can fly people down to Newcastle/Sydney for less than a carton of Corona. It's not an essential service, we don't need more instagramers here. Its just a distorted market.
The simple solution would be to stop subsidizing these flights, let the market do its thing. There is a big International airport just an hour drive away. Lismore 30 mins away. It won't happen of course, but that is the best solution.