Rockhampton airport reports surge in passengers but central west flights still uncertain

New figures have shown the number of passengers travelling through Rockhampton Airport have finally surpassed pre-pandemic figures from 2019.

The council-operated facility welcomed a total of 582,034 passengers through the terminal during the 2022/23 financial year, which was up 17 per cent on projected figures.

Airport councillor Neil Fisher said while many airports were still struggling to re-gain their pre-COVID passenger levels, Rockhampton had bucked the trend.

He said the increase in numbers could be attributed to a combination of factors, including enhanced connectivity, increased flight options, and expanded long-term car park capacity.

"This year has seen the commencement of new airline Bonza for the general passenger market as well as further charters servicing the resources sector," Cr Fisher said.

"Passengers can now fly direct to seven destinations across Queensland and Victoria including Brisbane, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns."

He said the introduction of Bonza had not negatively impacted other airlines, but instead brought new passengers to the airport.

"Now there's some people there never been on a plane in the last 10 years suddenly coming back to the airport," he said.

He projected Beef 2024 would have considerable impacts on next year's numbers, bringing a significant amount of people to the region, with domestic flights, chartered flights, and private light aircraft all set to ascend on the Beef Capital.

"Part of the planning process at the moment involves going through and trying to estimate numbers as it gets closer to Beef as that planning will inform logistics such as where to park the aircraft," he said.

Despite good news for Rockhampton Airport, the region's central western neighbours were still missing out.

Cr Fisher said while it was great the airport was better able to connect the region with larger cities, he acknowledged work needed to do done to create better connections with the bush.

"We haven't given up on servicing other communities, they're definitely on our radar and we're working towards it," he said.

Cr Fisher said getting the east and west connected was extremely important to him and something he had been working on for over 10 years.

He said before the pandemic there were documents "almost" signed to get airlines servicing those areas, such as Longreach, but "Covid came and just blew us out the water".

He thought the connection made sense from a business perspective as the data stacked up, but said the number of people who would access flights from the west remained unclear.

"Because people been denied that service for so long, a lot of people just don't even think of flights."

Cr Fisher said for those travelling to seek health treatments, connections to the coast could be life- changing.

"We could get to the stage where those people that are coming for their cancer treatment from Longreach to Rockhampton every fortnight wouldn't have those painful car rides home after chemo treatment," he said.

"It's the 21st century and connectivity is part of our culture, but the central west is still lagging behind and I don't think that's right," he said.

He wanted to see more government support via funding to help regional airports like Rockhampton get better connections off the ground.

He indicated smaller tier 2 airlines were "hungry for the opportunity".

Tier 1 airlines Qantas and Virgin were contacted for comment, with both services indicating there were no current plans to expand into the central western region, with any future changes based on demand.