Lake Macquarie Council has approved close to $3 million worth of upgrades for its local airport.
Work is set to begin at the Marks Point Airfield later this year to install new facilities including five new hangars, a carpark and restaurant.
It's hoped the upgrades could open the opportunity for regular flights to Sydney ten years since they were last available.
"I think as the population grows, it should be viable to run the regular passenger service out of there again," Airport Chairman Rob Hibbert said, "but again it’s not the airport that will be putting that into place.
"We’re leaving that option open," Mr Hibbert explained, "we’ve got space there for it to happen and it’s just a matter of one of the operators to come in and say ‘we’ve got a passion to do this."
Rob Hibbert believes increasing employment is a priority.
"We’ll move in to those big spaces, and that will allow our businesses to expand and run more efficiently. Then the old hangers that we are all occupying at the moment will all be leased out to new tenants and we’re looking at trying to bring other businesses into those hangers," he said.
"Basically, what we’re trying to do is get more people employed on the site, which is obviously good for Lake Macquarie and good for the local economy. "
