In a rare occurrence, the Dubbo City Regional Airport passenger terminal was closed for a day, due to flight cancellations.
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Passenger flights have been among those heavily impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, and most recently by the Greater Sydney lockdown. The passenger terminal closed last Saturday, July 24 when all flights were stopped, but airport operations remained open for patient transfers and emergencies.
Currently, there are limited flights and only essential workers and people with an exemption are allowed to board from Sydney, with police conducting random spot-checks.
"Dubbo City Regional Airport, like many businesses, is operating at reduced capacity," Airport manager Jacki Parish said. "Since the start of the pandemic, we have proactively been working with NSW Police and NSW Health to ensure compliance across the board, with police regularly conducting random on-the-spot checks and inspecting relevant paperwork of passengers.
"It has primarily been regular passenger transport affected by these restrictions. It means that we had to close the airport passenger terminal on Saturday 24 July, as all flights were cancelled. However, all other airport operations continued, including patient transfers and general aviation."
There is reduced demand in the Sydney to Dubbo route, with airlines running two flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and one on Sundays.
"These flights are only carrying essential workers or people with special travel exemptions," Ms Parish said. "The DCRA remains open for other essential operations such as medical transfers with the Royal Flying Doctors Service, AirMed as well as Air Charter."
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