More visitors expected as Melburnians touch down on maiden Bonza flight into Port Macquarie

The direct flights between Melbourne's Tullamarine airport and Port Macquarie airport operate twice weekly on Mondays and Thursdays.

South Melbourne resident Ros Green was on the first flight from Melbourne with her sister Maryanne Wheelan.

"It was great fun," Mr Green said. "I've been waiting for this."

Ms Green owns a holiday house 40 minutes south of Port Macquarie but said previously the journey there would take her one flight plus an hour and a half drive.

"What happened was I wouldn't pick up guests because it was a whole half a day turnaround," she said.

"I wasn't encouraging or asking people to come and stay with us. [This flight] is life-changing."

For Sue and Ian Martin, it's a big change from spending a day and a half driving up from Shepparton, Victoria, to visit their son and two granddaughters.

They said that the flight was "absolutely excellent".

"This is a very economic way to travel," Mr Martin said.

"I'm hoping lots more people will make use of it because Port Macquarie is such a great place to visit," Ms Stevens said.

Andrew Watkins expects to be a regular visitor.

Mr Watkins made the over 2000 kilometre journey to Port Macquarie from Hobart to visit a friend in Coffs Harbour.

"I've been meaning to come up for a while but the costs were too expensive going to Coffs," he said.

"[My friend] comes down to Melbourne occasionally but I don't see him as often."

When asked if he will be back in Port Macquarie, "definitely" was his answer.

This is Bonza's 22nd route and CEO Tim Jordan says it has been incredibly well received by passengers both in Port Macquarie and Melbourne.

"The early bookings have been very encouraging," he said.

"We're about getting people from where they live to where they'd like to go and home again, for a really great rate.

"I think this route demonstrates if we can do that, the communities that we serve will respond and we're humbled by that to be quite honest."

Earlier this year Bonza commenced its direct flights between Port Macquarie and the Sunshine Coast.

Mr Jordan said that the Melbourne market is booking quicker than the Sunshine Coast market but that is to be expected.

"It's early days," he said. "We're not naiive enough to think that markets will be full every single week.

"These markets such as the Sunshine Coast will take more time to grow.

"We're all about taking you to A to B without the connection, without the confusion, without the complexity and certainly without the cost," he said.

Port Macquarie-Hastings council CEO Dr Clare Allen said the flights were a "fantastic opportunity for our region."

"I think our community has been crying out to actually get this trip through to Melbourne."

For performing artists Lucy Frost and Gordo Gamsby, the new route is a game changer.

The two artists who greeted visitors on the tarmac, are also directors of the annual Tortuga festival.

With the new flight route, they are hoping to be able to bring in artists from different parts of Australia but also to encourage people to visit Port Macquarie for cultural tourism.

"We've already booked artist's flights from Melbourne to Port Macquarie for the ArtWalk," Mr Gamsby said.

"We can just offer so much more to people here in Port Macquarie," Ms Frost said.

With more airlines and routes arriving at the airport, Dr Allen said that she thinks there is going to be a higher frequency of visitors.

"What we're going to have to watch now is parking [at the airport]," she said.

"We've got Ironman on this weekend so we don't know whether that's skewing things, but it certainly was hard to get a park today.

"We believe that we'll need to look at that and act fairly quickly."

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