Originally Posted by
Zinfandel
MCY is never going to be a secondary airport for BNE. This morning there was a crash on the gateway southbound near the Deagon Deviation at 0730am…drive from Sunny coast down was 1:55. Return drive at 1600, another crash northbound also near the Deagon Deviation= 2:10 drive home to the Sunny Coast. These delays/long drive times happen at least 3 times a week.
It’s approximately 100 km from MCY airport to the center of BNE and the regular commuters allow 2 hours for the drive.
Say (for example) you wanted to fly from Brisbane to Mildura
Even with an accident on the Bruce, it would still be Quicker and cheaper with Bonza direct via Maroochydore
And 1/2 your trip won't be bouncing around in a Q400
As far as demand goes
740 seats per week Albury to Brisbane $296 one way in a dash 8 a tad less with a stop (4 x 737)
290 seats per week Wagga to Brisbane $291 one way in a dash 8 a tad less with a stop (1.5 x 737)
From this I can extrapolate the below
Brisbane to Mildura
QF $367 for 4 1/2 hours
REX $278 for 4 1/2 hours
Return is about the same
And this is the quickest, many other options blow out to 7+ hours
Bonza would be little over $100.00 for 2 hours + allow 2 hours drive to MCY and say $30 fuel
So for a Brisbane based single passenger
$734 QF return
$556 ZL return
$250 AB return
Family of 4
$2936 QF
$2224 ZL
$900 AB
Minimum saving $1324
Plus save a minimum of 30 minutes each way with bad traffic and no chance of luggage missing the transfer
So there re both time and financial savings to be had for those from Brisbane wanting to go to some of these regional ports