Residents will soon be able to fly from Tamworth to Melbourne as one airline adapts to the coronavirus pandemic. Fly Corporate will introduce a four-hour flight from the city to Victoria's capital via Dubbo and Orange. Jeff Boyd said the move was to counter the decrease in ticket sales and would form part of their usual Tamworth to Brisbane route. "We have received funding from the federal government to operate two-weekly return services to all of our ports," he said. "We have formed a milk run - if you will - from Brisbane down to Tamworth onto Dubbo then Orange and through to Melbourne. "There isn't the volume of passengers at any ports to run direct services." Mr Boyd said once the issues from COVID-19 have settled, their airline might consider keeping the route if it proves to be popular. "It's going to take a long time for the market to come back," he said. "Once the government finishes, and we need to do these routes in our own right then we anticipate that we probably will need to the milk run for a period of time. "Then we can gauge if Melbourne to Tamworth is a popular route to see if we put that in place in the future."
The flights are available from Monday, with tickets already on sale.