Airport changes are nothing new to Inverell travellers but not all progress has been helpful.
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Inverell resident John Drew remembers the business flights he made as a young man with his dad, Bernie Drew, when Sydney flights were on offer at Inverall airport.
“In those days, one could board an aircraft locally and one and a half hours later arrive in Sydney.
“Today [it’s a] one and a half hour drive to Armidale then board an aircraft, and one hour 20 minutes [to] arrive in Sydney,” he said.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Inverell businesswoman Wendy Wilks who increasingly prefers to drive to Sydney.
“We used to have an airline that went from Sydney to Glen Innes and to Inverell,” she said.
With the ‘local’ airport now in Armidale, Ms Wilks said its takes about five to six hours to fly and seven hours to drive. The inconvenience of the extra hour is offset by not having to rise before dawn and get home late at night to meet flight times.