It's been a plan in the making for some time, but hotel magnate Jerry Schwartz is finally getting his plans off the ground for a sea plane service in the Hunter.
The new sea plan service Blue Sky Airways is set to launch in August and will see a sea plane operate between Sydney Harbour to Newcastle harbour and out to Cessnock airport. An amphibious float fitted to the plan will allow it to land on both water and land.
Not only is he establishing the sea plane service, but in the next couple of weeks a shuttle bus service will start up between Newcastle airport and the CBD and out to the Hunter Valley.
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| Jerry Schwartz Image hotelmanagement.com.au |
"Newcastle has its own airport but there's the same problem of getting from Newcastle airport to Newcastle city which is about a 35-minute drive and to the Hunter region so in the next week or so we will be starting a regular bus service that goes at the same time every day and connects these three centres," said Jerry Schwartz.
Jerry is one of the richest men in Australia and says there was a definite gap in the market for quicker and easier travel between Sydney and the Hunter, and he's filling it.
"The only way you can get there (Hunter Valley) is by car and that takes you about two and a half hours each way, so for the larger conferences we have we find that it's a definite impendence that distance and the ability to get there, so this is our first opportunity to connect the centres by air."
He adds his two transport ideas are something government should have looked into, and since they haven't he's decided to take the opportunity.
"One would've hoped the government would've done that most basically by having a train service to the Hunter, but there's no train service to the Hunter, you can't even catch the train to Newcastle, then the question is how do you get from the train station to your hotel in the Hunter? That's the big gap that I hope I'm able to fulfil by having a regular bus service," said Jerry.
