Qantas Link to Wollongong - any B717's?

[Nigel C]

There's been some recent discussion in local media that the local council wants to explore once again having RPT flights from YWOL.

I know Qantas Link flew Dash-8's on the YWOL-YMML route back in the mid 2000's, and Impulse ran B1900D's on the same route for a while before that.

In some of the local social media chatter, some people are suggesting that B717's also flew the YWOL-YMML route, but I can't ever remember seeing any here.

Can anyone here confirm or otherwise if any B717's did fly into YWOL?

Cheers

[MarkR]

I doubt it, Impulse stopped in August 2000 and they only got the 717s running in June, at that stage they were busy on the Syd-Mel legs

[Nigel C]

Sorry Mark, I wasn't referring to the Impulse B717's.

By the mid-2000's when Qantas Link started flying into YWOL, the B717's were in Qantas colours.

[MarkR]

No worries, even in QF link colours they would not have operated there, post JQ (2006) the 717s went to WA/NT to operate routes previously done by the BAE146s. They struggled to fill a 200 series Dash 8, with load factors often at 50% and also didn't have the screening for jets.

[Michael R]

No we definitely never flew B717 services from Wollongong. It would be great to see us back down the Illawarra however my personal opinion is if someone is going to do it I would bet on the likes of Jetgo. At the moment Qlink is looking at placing more B717 on capital service routes out of Sydney possibly into Melbourne and extra services to Adelaide during the day when pax loads are much lighter.

[Nigel C]

I live not far from the extended centreline of Rwy 16/34, and I'm pretty sure I'd have remembered if a (relatively) large jet had operated from here. Thanks for the confirmation that they didn't.

Cheers

[Rob R]

I'm a former Impulse pilot and the only type we operated into Wollongong was the B1900D.
The routes were:

WOL - MEL (Essendon) -WOL - MEL (Essendon) - CBR- NTL
NTL - SYD - WOL -MEL (Essendon) - NTL
WOL - MEL - (Essendon) - WOL

These flight were generally operated with the 18 seat (with rear toliet) and front galley. During the cruise the FO's would go back and hand out free meals and drinks to the pax and just prior to TOPD they would do a rubbish clear.

The passengers numbers were ideal for a 19 seat aircraft and at best now, it would only work with a 30-36 seat aircraft.

They are dreaming if they think you could operate a 100 seat jet out of there.

Best chance would to to convince the Navy to allow a terminal to be built at Nowra. There would be no performance issues and you would have a passenger catchment area from south of Wolongong to right down the south coast.

[MarkR]

Originally Posted by Rob R

Best chance would to to convince the Navy to allow a terminal to be built at Nowra. There would be no performance issues and you would have a passenger catchment area from south of Wolongong to right down the south coast.

Nowra had a terminal (off Braidwood Rd) from the days when Hazeltons and Mazair operated RPT.

[Nigel C]

Growing up in Nowra, I remember Dad pointing out the Masling Queenairs as they flew over our place. But Dad never mentioned aircraft types, he used to just tell me they were Maslings, so I thought every loud piston twin was called a Masling!

Rob, there hasn't been any suggestion from council as to aircraft types (and certainly not for a 100 seater), but merely discussion about getting another RPT service to operate from YWOL.

Given the airport has a potential catchment of ~300000 people, surely there must be a reasonable market for RPT services out of here? Sure, we're not far from Sydney, but there's got to be a few destinations that would get good patronage?

[Kent Broadhead]

MEL always seemed the only logical RPT destination from Wollongong, given the corporate link.

I can perhaps see a low frequency service to the Gold Coast being successful, but the Illawarra business links are more diverse - no other destination springs to mind.