Winton flights kick off Alliance's tourism venture

The company is known for its charter flights but national charter sales manager Alex Cooper said if ever there was a time to begin fly-in tourism to western Queensland, it was now, while Australians were confined to domestic tourism options.

"Our CEO Lee Schofield was blown away with what he saw when he was out at Winton," he said, explaining the airline's choice to start with flights to that town.

They recognised the challenge of getting to Winton by air - at present it is served by twice-weekly Rex Airlines flights that operate between Townsville and Longreach with a stopover in Winton.

"The multi-town trip isn't easy for people who are time-poor," Mr Cooper said. "We've decided to give this a go and see how it goes."

So far they've scheduled three direct flights - May 15, July 3 and September 18 - and they expect to attract mostly Queenslanders with the first one, building up to interstate interest as word gets out.

Winton mayor Gavin Baskett hailed it as a win for his community and its attractions, and for cashed-up time-poor travellers.

"They've been flying charters here and they know our airport and capabilities," he said.

During the recent Way out West Festival, the council chartered one of the company's 80-seat Fokker 70 jets to bring artists in and out of Brisbane, and on-sold 40 spare seats to the general public on the Friday and Saturday flights.

"It showed the interest that's out there," Cr Baskett said. "It helped us pay for the plane, and people got a chance to be on a plane with the musicians as well as attend the festival."

Outback Queensland Tourism Association chairman Andrew Martin said it was a "bloody great idea", as would be flights to the Better in Blackall Festival, the Channel Country Ladies Day and the multitude of other attractions available in western Queensland.

"I've often said, if you don't have a road, people can't drive on it - this is the same thing," he said. "Tourism flights have been done before but the regularity is missing, the opportunities haven't been explored or marketed properly."

He said it was up to the OQTA to market the destinations, after which it was the job of airline executives and package operators to put together flights.

"I congratulate any of the airlines who see the opportunities in what we have out here," he said.

According to OQTA CEO Denise Brown, they hadn't underwritten the venture financially but put money towards marketing, along with Tourism Queensland.

She said the recognition of paleo tourism as an important tourism drawcard was a great thing.

"The rest of the state has the Great Barrier Reef and turtles and whales but this is the only place they can see this sort of thing."

Mr Cooper said while it was early days, ticket sales had been really positive.

"That said, there is still plenty of availability on all dates," he said.

All three return flights are on a Saturday and the latter two are in school holidays, but Mr Cooper expected some of the market to be working professionals.

The $695 fare includes the Australian Age of Dinosaurs and its collection room, fossil preparation laboratory, dinosaur canyon and March of the Titanosaur exhibit, about to be opened, as well as the Waltzing Matilda Centre, lunch at an iconic outback pub in town, and a bus tour of Winton.

All entries, meals and transfer costs are included in the flights that will depart at 6am and return to Brisbane by early evening.

"This is a new thing for us," Mr Cooper said.

"We've done it to a degree, in that clients come, we provide the flight and they market it.

"This, we're doing ourselves and we're convinced there's a massive market for this."

He said Alliance aspired to do more event-type charters, and more dates for the Winton destination could be added, subject to demand.

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