Dubbo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo are front and centre on the latest addition to the QantasLink fleet, with a new paint job featuring some of the zoo's most well-known residents.
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The new look Q400 was unveiled on Monday at Dubbo Regional Airport, and replaces the previous Taronga Western Plains Zoo aircraft.
Taronga Western Plains general manager Matt Fuller said the new decal looked fantastic, and represented the renewal of an important partnership between QantasLink and the zoo.
"Very exciting to have that out there as a flying billboard promoting regional Australia," he said.
"Partnerships, like we've just done today with QantasLink, are integral to our success."
"We're on the wave of some great success, with the investments in our overnight products we'll see around 30,000 overnight visitors this year."
"Our visitor economy is worth over $400 million annually - we know of leisure tourists over 70 per cent of those are attracted by the zoo to visit Dubbo. So a very significant contributor to the economy and a very significant contributor to the success of inland NSW, which at the moment is really punching above its weight."
The Qantas executive team were on-board the new look flight for its maiden voyage to Dubbo, including CEO Alan Joyce, who named Dubbo as most important destination in the QantasLink network.
"We've been operating here for 22 years - there's no other destination on our network that's more important than this destination, so we're extremely excited to be here," he said.
The executive team will now stick around for their annual off-site corporate strategy meeting, and to see the zoo for themselves, and Mr Joyce said his team is committed to increasing services in Dubbo, if there's enough demand.
"We are very keen to keep on growing. When we see an opportunity we will take it, and we see more destinations and more frequency as the eventual outcome for Dubbo."