Joyous reception for those on inaugural regular Qantas flight from Adelaide to Albury

The Qantas plane arrived early at 1.20pm with 34 out of its 50 seats occupied by Border residents and South Australian visitors.

Among the latter group was the Hill family of Adelaide, mum Belinda, dad Jamie and sons Blake, 11, and Austin, 8, who are having a week-long snow getaway at Falls Creek.

"We would normally drive but we thought we would try going this way and it's a lot less stressful and easy to do," Mrs Hill said.

"We weren't expecting (the freebies), it's a nice start to our holiday."

The first passenger to enter the terminal was Adelaide Airport head of aviation business development Jonathon Cheong.

He was followed by Albury citizen Kylie Duryea who had been in Adelaide visiting her daughter Mia.

She welcomed the opportunity of a direct service after having flown to the City of Churches via Sydney.

"It was good not to have connections and missed connections," Mrs Duryea said.

Travellers were greeted by Albury mayor Kylie King and deputy mayor Steve Bowen who gave them showbags after they walked into the terminal on a red carpet.

Two weekly return flights will run until September 25 to coincide with the ski season, but both Cr King and Mr Cheong would like to see an ongoing connection.

"I'd really love it to be an all-round thing, I know there a lot of expat South Aussies that live here, so I think there's real potential for that family and friends domestic market as well (as tourists)," Cr King said.

"We know the Supercars, they're back in Adelaide and we know that there are lots of locals that love to go to that Adelaide street race, so I'm pretty sure there'll be a lot of us visiting South Australia."

Mr Cheong said he believed Qantas had started the service at the right time by launching it during ski season and he hoped Border residents would be lured to South Australia by its wilderness and Adelaide Oval sport.

A Qantas representative at the airport was unable to speak to the media.

The return flight to Adelaide on Friday afternoon had 27 passengers aboard.

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