The cancellation of the Saturday service comes less than three months after the regional airline launched daily flights to Brisbane and Melbourne from the Illawarra Regional Airport.

Its Melbourne services remain unchanged, with flights to Brisbane still operating six days a week.

JetGo managing director Paul Bredereck said the cancellation of the Saturday flight was due to a ‘’minor tweak’’ of the schedule.

‘’The company is just making some seasonal tweaks to the schedule,’’ he said.

‘’Going into the Wollongong market, it was a new market with no history, so we had to test where the demand was.

‘’We’re very pleased with how our Melbourne flights are going – and our Brisbane services are going okay too.

‘’There’s just not as much demand for the Brisbane service on a Saturday, with more demand on weekdays.’’

Passengers with Saturday bookings to Brisbane were advised by email this week, and offered a full refund or transfer to an alternative flight.

However Shell Cove resident Jeff Williams said he received the email on Tuesday, giving him just a few days notice to change his travel plans.

“I am extremely disappointed to have lost this convenient flight option from Albion Park,’’ he said.

‘’Whilst it is only one day a week that it has been cancelled, I am concerned that JetGo has behaved like this in other ports with the final result being a withdrawal from the route.  

“We have used this convenient service, although to Melbourne and we were looking forward to supporting JetGo yet again.

“I just hope that this is not the beginning of the end.”

In the email, a JetGo spokesperson said the decision to cancel the service was “not taken lightly”. 

‘”After considerable research, reports found that it was not practical to continue this service.’’