Dunedin Airport was flying high in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Ewan Wilson's Kiwi Air pioneered no-frills and cheaper flights to Australia in 1995 before intense competition from Air New Zealand and its subsidiary Freedom Air forced it from the skies.
There followed the days of Ansett NZ (later Qantas NZ) and Origin Pacific and competition to Christchurch and Wellington.
In the boom Freedom Air days there were the direct flights to Sydney, a weekly service to Melbourne, the continuing link to Brisbane and even, for a while, flights to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast.
By July 1996 there were 10 flights a week from Dunedin to Australia, and Freedom Air in the mid-2000s had six a week.
In 1995 Wellington-based Queenstown Air took off with a Wellington-Queenstown-Dunedin link.
It failed, and another service to Queenstown in 2000 also did not last long.
Freedom Air routes were taken over by its parent company, Air New Zealand, from March 2008 and Dunedin was supposed to reap the benefit, according to the airline.
The reverse occurred, and even the successful summer flights to Sydney were cut in 2014.
Dunedin has, with justification, felt hard done by.
Quality and economic air links are important for business and lifestyle.
They encourage students, companies and ''leisure'' travel and are crucial to the city's economy.
Yet, the planes and low prices were focused on the Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch sectors and those cities' links with Australia.
Competition begot competition and Dunedin suffered.
When, for example, the Fulton Hogan head office was lost to Christchurch ease of travel from the larger centre was one of the causes.
Hopefully, the Silver Fern Farms head office is not threatened for similar reasons.
It is not surprising, therefore, southern people embraced the competition from Jetstar for its daily flight to and from Auckland when it began in July 2011.
Likewise, Jetstar's new service to Wellington is likely to be supported.
Fares will regularly be more competitive and more people will fly.
The flight times, being towards the middle of the day, will not be so attractive to business people, who often prefer flights early and late.
But they will draw strongly on other parts of the market, even if Air New Zealand dominates the premium end and has links to the capital several times a day, every day.
Given the size of Jetstar, and its backing as a Qantas subsidiary, as well as its measured and careful expansion around New Zealand, there must be optimism the service will last.
At three times a week, it is not a frontal assault on Air New Zealand and the two should be able to coexist on the route.
Shakier is the Dunedin-Queenstown route, begun to much goodwill this week by Ewan Wilson's new Kiwi Regional Airlines.
Already, however, Mr Wilson is talking about a daily service being reduced to one on Monday and Fridays, while the new Kiwi Air routes to Nelson and Hamilton have better bookings.
By rights, Dunedin to Queenstown should ''fly''.
There are many personal and business ties between the centres, and the chance for accountants, lawyers, architects, medical specialists and the like to avoid the long road trip should be attractive.
That is despite the time to get to Dunedin Airport, the check-in and the need for transport at the Queenstown end.
Perhaps Dunedin and Queenstown residents are just too used to the familiar road route and too wedded to their cars.
It could also be that Dunedin people use Queenstown Airport more as a closer stepping stone to Australia rather than Christchurch or Auckland (it can often be cheaper to fly to Australia from Dunedin via Auckland than Christchurch).
Queenstown Airport's trajectory has been remarkable and its links to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are now extensive and becoming more competitive.
If the pricing is right, this becomes a serious option.
It must now be hoped the services, particularly that Queenstown link, are well used and Mr Wilson's venture flourishes.
Dunedin Airport has had a turbulent history and it and Dunedin as a whole welcome his and Jetstar's new services.
