Airport customers to be surveyed | Whitsundays News | Local News in Whitsundays

PASSENGERS at the Whitsundays two airports will from this week feature as part of a survey aimed at improving air access to the Whitsundays.

The departure lounge survey will take place over the next three weeks at Hamilton Island and Proserpine airports and passengers, both local and visiting, will be asked a series of questions to determine the demand for more air services to the Whitsundays.

The survey will cover a range of topics including flight destinations, price and time spent in the Whitsundays.

The data gathered over the next three weeks will then be collated and eventually used to help lobby airlines to provide more flights to the Whitsundays.

Over the past 18 months the Whitsundays has lost four direct flights a week from Sydney to Proserpine and seven direct flights a week from Sydney to Hamilton Island although Virgin Blue has since introduced a new direct flight from Sydney to Hamilton Island in that time.

The departure lounge survey is part of an overall campaign to lobby the airlines for increased air services to the region.

The next phase of the campaign will see Tourism Whitsundays conduct a survey of local business followed by a departure lounge survey at the Mackay airport. Following that survey a business case will be put together by Tourism Whitsundays which will be taken to the airlines.