It will increase the current 10 flights to 12 a week, well up on the three offered when the Sydney-Orange route was launched last July.

It comes as Orange airport passenger numbers for March were more than the same month in 2020 - for the first time in a year.

QantasLink CEO John Gissing said the extra flights would provide 250 more seats on the route each week, taking the total available to 1200.

"We're continuing to see strong demand for our Orange flights since the route first launched 10 months ago and [we] have been gradually adding more frequencies," he said.

Mr Gissing said there would soon be five times the number of seats available on the airline than when the service started.

"It's fantastic to see the local community has really supported this route and we're pleased to be able to respond by adding more flights to give them more choice about when they travel."

Mr Gissing said QantasLink had provided competition to Regional Express on the route.

Figures in a staff report to Orange City Council this week show the turn around in airport use since COVID-19 travel restrictions were eased.

"Passenger numbers for March 2021 were 4966 compared with 4708 in the same month in 2020," it said.

The figures include QantasLink, Rex and Link Airways flights.

In July, August and September last year fewer than 1000 people used Orange airport each month.

Meanwhile in other council news, work is running ahead of schedule on the latest stage of the Southern Feeder Road construction.

Following a question from Cr Joanne McRae the council was told the work could be completed in July.

The current stage, where half of the project has already been completed, would take the road from Forest Road to Bathurst Road.

Technical Services Director Ian Greenham said the original target was August.

He said co-ordination with Transport for NSW was needed to link the SFR to Bathurst Road.

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