Albury airport boss eyes off travel record thanks to flights to Adelaide, Brisbane

Qantas announced on Wednesday it was introducing Friday and Sunday return services from Albury to Adelaide during this year's ski season from July 8 to September 25.

It is also adding three return services to Brisbane after beginning that route on a seasonal basis before extending it last year to a daily all-year service.

That means there will be twice daily return flights on Tuesdays and Sundays and an overnight service on Thursday-Friday.

Albury Council's team leader airport operations Nick Politis is thrilled with the new services which follow a tough period with Virgin Australia ending flights and COVID cruelling travel.

He hopes the 50-seat Q300 planes to Adelaide and more 70-seat Q400s to Brisbane will allow the airport to reach the 300,000 mark for the first time.

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"This (Adelaide) route will introduce 100 passengers into Albury, if we could increase that all-year round and daily, like Brisbane, we could then finally achieve over 300,000 passengers that we've been trying to achieve since 2016," Mr Politis said.

"We anticipate with the Adelaide service, as it currently stands, we'll be looking at almost being to 85 to 90 per cent of our pre-COVID levels."

From April last year to March there were around 90,000 passengers who travelled through Albury airport.

The busiest financial year was 2009-10 with 289,298.

Last month, 16,000 went through the airport compared to a typical monthly tally of 21,000 pre-COVID.

Deputy mayor Steve Bowen said news of more flights was "sensational" and he floated Darwin and Perth as possible future destinations.

QantasLink chief executive John Gissing noted Albury was "quickly becoming one of our most connected regional centres" with flights to four capital cities now.

Mr Politis said the deal followed an approach to Adelaide airport chiefs and stressing the proximity of Albury to the snowfields.

The flights to Adelaide will take two hours.

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