BY JESSICA ROUSE AND TYLER FARDELL

The secret is out, Newcastle Airport are starting direct flights to Adelaide.

FlyPelican based at the airport will be running a two-hour direct flight three times a week from Newcastle Airport straight to Adelaide three times a week.

The services will include a Tuesday flight departing at 9:50am, a Wednesday 6:35pm and a Friday 7:50pm service.

The airfares start from just $249 and flights will start in March this year.

FlyPelican CEO Paul Graham said they’re very excited to be expanding the network and giving travellers more choice.

“I’ve been in the aviation scene in the Hunter for 20 years. In those 20 years I’ve ever heard of such a demand for one particular destination and that’s Newcastle to Adelaide direct,”

“We will be operating the service with a 100 seat Fokker and 80 seat Fokker aircraft starting with three return services per week with Tuesday morning, Wednesday afternoon and Friday afternoon services and hopefully we’re looking at pulling in Sunday services very quickly,” said Paul Graham.

It comes on the back of years of rapid growth for the airport, which has seen a consecutive monthly increase of passengers travelling through the airport year-on-year since November 2015.