QantasLink brings back seasonal Melbourne – Sunshine Coast flights
QantasLink is one of the Sunshine Coast's repeat visitors.
Melbournians must have liked last year's taste of the Sunshine Coast, because QantasLink has announced that it's bringing back seasonal flights between Melbourne and the Sunshine coast in the 2017-2018 holiday period.
This decision comes after the "really popular" success of last year's seasonal flights, and is seeing QantasLink step it up another notch with five flights per week (instead of the previous four), scheduled to take off on Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday between 16 December 2017 and 28 January 2018.
There are only 110 seats going each way per day though, so you might want to book your flights sooner rather than later to be sure of getting a spot.
This is a much wider spread of travel periods than last year, when all four flights were taking off on Saturday and Sunday only. QantasLink can get the benefits of catching holidaymakers coming and going, while travellers can enjoy a flexible and wide range of flight dates to nail down the exact holiday period they want.
It may also let QantasLink stretch the fleet a bit further, needing only a single plane to run all of these flights throughout the week. In this case, a dual-cabin 717 with 110 seats to fill. These seasonal peaks are when QantasLink tends to shine the brightest on the most popular domestic routes, so pulling out even more trips than the year before, without needing any more aircraft in peak times, is a great improvement.
"This is great news for customers planning their holiday break, making it even easier for more Australian and international travellers to explore Queensland’s beaches, and also for locals who want to fly south for the summer." said QantasLink chief executive John Gissing.
It's one of the longer domestic routes in Australia, but it's still relatively easy to pick up enough Qantas Points to pay for the trip (about 9,600).
While Melbourne is now getting seasonal flights, Sydney is still getting the benefits of an all-year link to the Sunshine Coast, might still be getting prioritised, likely as a more popular entry point for international travellers, retaining its year-round flights between Sydney and Queensland.
Search for flights between Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast, from 16 December to 28 January
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