IT’S been a big win for the southwest Queensland community staying connected, with Qantas now expanding to run extra services from the Charleville Airport, but the local mayor is warning people they’ll need to use it, or lose it.

Murweh Shire mayor Shaun ‘Zoro’ Radnedge got confirmation that Qantas will now restore their Monday flights late on November 20.

This comes after some tough negotiation, publicity, and an expression of frustration from Cr Radnedge on Facebook, who pointed out there used to be seven flights to the local airport before COVID.

“Qantas services that are coming into the Charleville airport are going to be be Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” Cr Radnedge said on Facebook on November 21.

“The easy part was getting it, now we’ve got to keep it.

“Now we need to get this message far and wide because this message is bigger than the Murweh Shire.

“It’s the southwest crop region, and everyone accesses that, even our friends up in Blackall-Tambo [Region].”

Cr Radnedge said there’ll need to be the numbers on the flights to justify Qantas keeping them, and is encouraging people to use them and for passengers to let the airline know if their flight is full.

The flights to Brisbane will be run with a stopover at Roma.

Cr Radnedge also thanked Federal Agriculture Minister and Maranoa MP David Littleproud, state Transport Minister Mark Bailey, and Transport, Main Roads Director-General Neil Scales, and the Murweh councillors for their help in lobbying Qantas to restore the flights.