BRADLEY Jones had waited six months to return to the Hunter to see his family.
The former Novocastrian now living in Brisbane had been sweating, like so many others, on Queensland easing its border restrictions.
So when the reopening date was finally confirmed last week, the 34-year-old booked a flight straight away.
"It's been six months, I've missed my sister having a baby [boy] so I've come down to see him, he is five months old," Mr Jones said at Newcastle Airport on Tuesday.
The siblings and new and existing family members shared a special reunion in the airport's arrivals hall after Mr Jones stepped off the first flight from Brisbane since the border restrictions eased earlier that day.
There were about 30 people on the QantasLink flight, the majority in town for business or to see relatives.
At the other end of the airport about 30 minutes later, a similar number boarded the same plane back to Brisbane.
Friends Julia Jones and Michelle Cheers, of Forster, were flying via Brisbane to the country's far north to visit Ms Jones' family in Cairns. "I've got my mother and brothers and sisters [in Cairns]," Ms Jones said.
"I go up there regularly but just haven't been able to. We haven't been up since last October and had planned to go up there earlier this year but that didn't happen and it rolled on from there."
Ms Jones said she had "probably" never gone a year without seeing her mum and was "really excited" for the trip. She said her family were preparing to meet the pair of travellers at Cairns Airport.
"We haven't experienced not being able to see family," she said. "We've never had a restriction, so I'm certainly feeling the relief now.
"Everyone understands why [the border shut] but I think it went on too long.
"We learnt long ago how to deal with COVID and we should have just [opened it]. It's been a little too long."
Newcastle Airport CEO Peter Cock said "close to full" flights would be departing and arriving this week.
"It all comes to life," he said. "It's hard to run a cafe on a flight of 20 people, but when you've got 180 it starts to pick up. Our hope is this is the recovery and we don't get a third wave. We're confident about the way forward."
Prior to COVID-19, Newcastle Airport facilitated 250 flights per week and contributed $1.16 billion to the NSW economy each year, supporting over 5700 full-time employees across the tourism and airport industries.
It continues to lobby for a runway extension to coincide with Department of Defence works next year. The upgrade to allow for international aviation, which requires about $55 million, would create 4500 jobs and generate an estimated $12.7 billion in economic benefits.
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