The news comes after the News Weekly was contacted by Chrissy Millo, of Eden, furious that the flight for her parents to Merimbula in November was cancelled but she was only informed by FSA on October 31.

Mr Badov said the company has opted to acquire a new 19-seater twin engine turbo prop aircraft in order to achieve greater reliability of operations. It has been using a 19-seater Beechcraft aircraft.

“I am in the process of acquiring a new aircraft, but there was a delay and we had already relinquished the old aircraft,” Mr Badov said.

“There were difficulties and challenges in operating the old aircraft and I made the decision to change. There has been multiple ongoing maintenance issues with the previous aircraft,” Mr Badov said.

In an email to Ms Millo, FSA said: “We are in the process of upgrading our fleet and delays in aircraft acquisition have unfortunately made this disruption necessary.  Services will resume in December with a newer, more reliable fleet to better serve your community in the years to come.”

Ms Millo said the booking for her parents had been made for a special occasion and despite hearing talk about cancellations, trusted FSA would honour its flight schedules.

“I do not understand how you can cancel for a whole month, but resume in December.

“I will be interested to see the ‘new fleet’ arrive in the region. I would have thought this would have taken some long term planning, so this very short notice cancellation of services is very unexpected. 

“Would you not have known back when we made the booking,” Ms Millo said.

“I did want to try them especially as I travel to Melbourne a lot for clients” – Ms Millo has her own creative marketing business – “but they are totally off the radar for me now. At the end of day no-one can justify this; why did they not advise people. It’s bad marketing and having our money since September and not doing anything about it until October 31 is really bad,” an angry Ms Millo said.

Mr Badov maintained that all passengers affected had been notified and offered alternative travel dates or refunds.

“Passengers have also been assisted with alternative travel options on a case by case basis,” Mr Badov said.

Ms Millo received the email informing her of the cancellation the day before it came into force with an offer of a refund or the chance to re-book later in the year.

Alanna Haigh also contacted the News Weekly after disrupted plans cost $460 in last minute flights with Regional Express (Rex).

“My sister was given two free tickets for flights from Merimbula to Melbourne or Sydney. We booked flights a month in advance and my sister received a text message 24 hours before the flight time advising the flight was cancelled due to ‘maintenance issues,’” Ms Haigh said. 

“After four calls to FSA they said they would give us vouchers back, but were unable to help get flights from Merimbula to Melbourne.

“We went from having free flights to having to pay last minute $460 to get two tickets on a Rex flight the following day,” Ms Haigh said.

“I am so glad we still have a reliable airline out of Merimbula. FSA tickets aren't worth the paper they're written on. Worst dealing I've had, and I’m still waiting on vouchers to be emailed back – not that we will be using them,” Ms Haigh added.

Mr Badov said he regretted the inconvenience to passengers, but would be relaunching the service early in December.

“Our new aircraft will have the capability to service our customers well into the future,” he said.

However, he would not be drawn on whether he would be using Beechcraft again.

“We will replace it with a similar class of 19-seater,” he said.

Interestingly, a Sharp Airlines aircraft has been seen a couple of times at Merimbula Airport. Sharp has 19-seater twin engine turbo prop Metroliners.

Asked about any association, a spokeswoman for Sharp Airlines said: “We are providing a service on their (FSA) behalf and don’t want to say any more. We have an agreement that is confidential. However I can confirm that we are not providing services ourselves to Merimbula.”