When you consider what you pay to travel to Sydney is almost the equivalent of flying from Sydney to Singapore with Scoot ($179), you can't be blamed for thinking we are shortchanged.

Yes, there's different economies of scale and more competition in the major city but where is the competition in Dubbo?

You have the option to fly Qantas or Rex and you can only go east to Sydney or further west to Broken Hill.

If you want to travel to Melbourne from Dubbo there are no direct flights from the city's airport which means you need to make a compulsory stop in Sydney. Not only is it a hit on to the hip pocket but a waste of time. The quickest connection with Qantas from Dubbo to Melbourne via Sydney is three hours and 25 minutes.

That's more than the time it takes to travel from Melbourne to Queenstown, New Zealand.

For several months Dubbo residents have patiently waited for a new airline offering flights to Melbourne to take to the skies. Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson earlier said statistics indicated the airline would have about 23 definite passengers to Melbourne on its daily flights.

Dubbo is the halfway point between Melbourne and Brisbane and there is a strong case for flights to connect to the two capital cities.

Imagine how much money would be injected in the local economy if tourists could come directly to our city.

It's time Dubbo had more competition and could fly to other ports so residents and visitors could get value for money.