Qantas has announced 3 new seasonal routes for the upcoming Domestic Ski Season Sydney - Cooma Brisbane - Cooma Brisbane - Albury Flight Schedule SYD-OOM 17.05-18.05 - ThFr 16.25-17.25 - Su OOM-SYD 18.30-19.30 – ThFr 17.50 -18.50 – Su BNE-OOM 9.55 – 12.20 FrSu OOM-BNE 12.50 – 15.05 FrSu BNE-ABX 9.40 – 12.15 – ThFrSu ABX-BNE 12.40 – 15.00 – ThFrSu https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/m...uSKCVHHkSsaENoMvHxMinL_TGdyFydY-dur3DzKB2u6_Y
Shame there's no Melbourne-Cooma. Would be great to have a quicker/easier way to get up to Perisher/R̶a̶i̶n̶b̶o̶Thredbo
Qantas weren’t very patient (keen) on Mel-Hotham flights. A shame to have such a facility only used for charter flights? I’d be curious to know what the cost pp rtn is?
Surely too short a distance. Anyone know the shortest flight distance of a commercial flight in Australia?
True but it’s the time more than the distance. Hotham can be a notoriously slow drive mid winter. And even isolated from Bright for a day or so. And the ‘back-way’ is a pretty long distance (430km) from Melbourne- so roughly on par with Sydney to Cooma. The big difference is that Melbournians have Buller ~ 3.5 or so hours away. Sydney it’s ~ 6hrs+ To the hills, making flights to Cooma, more attractive- or so I believe? I’m sure the experts who both fly and drive via Cooma could testify?
Cooma airport is still over an hour from the resorts... And the people that fly to Cooma are staying on snow.
Sydney Newcastle? I know people who have done a Sydney-Gosford seaplane commute. And there is the seaplane from Rose Bay to Berowra, but, although it is regular I think it is technically a charter. I flew Sydney-Cooma a couple of times. Cooma is a tad over 4 hours drive. By the time you get to the airport, faff around with parking, check in and boarding; and factor in the flight time and waiting around for luggage at the other end there is not a lot of difference. Then there is a slower trip to the resort in a shuttle. It's a possibly little more relaxed but not much of a gain in time. As a general proposition, when I was doing a bit of work out of Sydney, I found for anything less than 3 hours +/-, driving worked better than flying. Moreso if I was doing an overnighter.
Yep aware of the drive times. But was thinking the flight time in a commercial prop might not be deasible? FYI - I googled.
There hasn’t been for many, many years. Not sure if there’s still car hire from the Caltex servo in Cooma, but that’s in the wrong direction if you’re going skiing.
Like the Europcar agency in Val d'Isere. It's there (I've seen the sign and it's on their website). You just can't pick up a car there.
There is if you pickup on Monday noon and return Friday noon or vice versa. But those times don't line up with the Qantas flights.
They aren’t located at the airport, haven’t been for many, many years. Can only assume they send the car out from Cooma.
Yes I can imagine it's just one bloke standing by the rentals at the airport with the car, keys, and paperwork for the customer to sign. Now if they just hire additional blokes to standby the rentals on the Qantas arrival and departure hours, they would make more money. But who knows, maybe they will still add those hours later as we get closer to the season. Would have been good for Qantas to coordinate with them though. Or maybe Qantas did inform them, but they don't want to make more money.
I would imagine if there was money to be made it would already be happening. 12 years ago there was a car hire place in Cooma, now it’s a kiosk at the servo. You’re over estimating the attraction of flying into Cooma. It’s mostly used by locals who get picked up by family. Very little benefit to tourists.
Either Qantas or Hertz is stupid then. Qantas for creating the Sydney/Brissy-Cooma flight, where there will be no demand. Or Hertz for not providing rentals at the airport, where there will be a steady stream of jet-setting skiers who would want a rental.
Rex Air coincides their arrival/departure times and days with the Hertz pickup/drop off times and days.
This will be lucky to last the season. I think the BNE flights will be more popular than Sydney as this is the best way for wealthy Queenslanders to get to the snow unless they want to go to NZ.
