Activity at Newcastle Airport is likely to remain negligible until the end of the year due to a ban on interstate tourism.
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The airport, which is heavily reliant on interstate flights, is currently running at about 1 per cent of its pre-COVID income.
Interstate flights are currently limited to five return flights to Brisbane a week and six return flights to Melbourne a week for essential workers. There were 18 return services to Canberra as of this week.
Fly Pelican is continuing to fly to Ballina, Byron Bay, Dubbo and Sydney, while Eastern Air Services is continuing to fly to Lord Howe Island.
"There's no doubt seeing Sydney and the rest of NSW open up will be a great result for regional tourism in places like Port Stephens. However, for as long as the other states stay closed to NSW, our revenue remains virtually zero. Extended border closures will place us in an incredibly challenging position," Airport chief executive Peter Cock said.
Staff have been redeployed to other activities and the airport says it has no intention of staff stand downs.
Despite the current challenges, Dr Cock said he was buoyed by the Newcastle's ability to bounce back from last year's COVID-19 setback. The airport has added five new routes in 2021, including the successful Newcastle-Cairns service.
Pre-COVID passenger data shows the airport recorded an average of 110,000 passengers per month leading up to the pandemic.
The airport recorded 79,000 passengers in April this year, the busiest month since the start of the pandemic.
May saw flight movements return to 86 per cent of pre-COVID levels. The airport was also ranked among the five quickest recovering airports in Australia.
"We remain hopeful that the NSW and federal governments, like us, are looking through the current crisis and understand that investing in our airport is a great bet," Dr Cock said.
The airport's other trump card is the federal government's $66 million commitment to upgrade the runway to international standard.
Work on the project is due to commence soon and with the aim of introducing long-haul international flights in 2023.
It is estimated the project will create 4500 jobs and generate an estimated $12.7 billion in economic benefits through international airfreight, industrial expansion and increased tourism traffic over the next two decades.
"We're hopeful the NSW government will leverage this opportunity and invest in the expansion of our terminal to cater for those larger passenger loads," Dr Cock said.
"As an airport, we will also invest heavily to attract new routes and new carriers to ensure the we continue to deliver the airport the region deserves.
"Doing that well will generate enormous economic value for the region, state and country."