“We are working hard on recommencement of flight services between Merimbula and Melbourne. We are in the process of formulating an agreement with another Melbourne airport in order to recommence operations,” Mr Badov said.

The airport is believed to be Moorabbin, situated about 30km south-east of Melbourne. A spokeswoman indicated there had been talks between the two parties, but would not comment further.

The talks follow Free Spirit’s demise at Essendon Airport where the company was given a notice to vacate on February 5 after the airline’s schedule was disrupted. 

Mr Badov claims the information on Essendon Airport’s website was untrue, but the service also made intermittent appearances at Merimbula Airport before the last scheduled service landed on January 22, 2018.

In the meantime passengers were left with unusable tickets. Mr Badov said the company was “working with all passengers who held bookings with us to arrange for refunds”. 

A Merimbula resident, who did not want to be named, said she had booked flights home to Merimbula as part of her return from a holiday in India but was emailed while away to say the flights were cancelled.

Unable to get any alternative flights the woman and her husband had to fly to Canberra and then take a bus to Merimbula. At the time of speaking to the News Weekly the woman had not received a refund.

The matter of refunds follows another financial issue after some customers found the credit cards they used for payment received further deductions for additional flights, and sometimes more than once.

Sandra Irving, of Merimbula, said her husband paid for flights to Melbourne on Free Spirit using his business credit card 12 months ago, but since then the card had been charged the same amount on three different occasions. 

Ms Irving said the money was returned after she contacted the company.

A similar issue affected passengers on the Essendon to Burnie, Tasmania, route, which is also no longer in operation, where Free Spirit has had 39 complaints from customers who were billed twice or more for tickets.

However Mr Badov is adamant “we’ll be back” and has talked up his shuttle bus service for the wider area.

“I will just state at this point that once relaunched, our operation will also have a big focus on also providing a shuttle bus service to residents of Batemans Bay, Moruya, Narooma an surrounding areas, as a road service to and from the Merimbula airport is clearly needed by many travellers,” Mr Badov said.

In addition to having to vacate Essendon Airport, the company also had issues with the shuttle bus after engine failure. The bus is now sitting in the wreckers yard on Mount Darragh Road. 

Mr Badov said the company, which most recently used a Sharp Airlines metroliner from Essendon, operated successfully for 13 months.

“The feedback from our customers was a consistently positive one. We built many valuable relationships and friendships with our passengers. People loved to fly with us.

“They were appreciative of the high quality and level of service and the affordable fares Free Spirit Airlines provided. We offered complimentary licensed passenger lounge at the airport and other little niceties. I knew that we were doing a good job and people were truly appreciative of the services we were providing when I was getting hugs and kisses from my passengers on a consistent basis,” Mr Badov said.

But after receiving notice at Essendon, “effectively we became an airline without a home and unable to serve the customers with whom we formed bonds, friendships and relationships,” Mr Badov said. 

Now with attempts to get the service running again, he admits there will be some differences between the kind of services provided earlier and services in the future.

“This is governed by airport facilities, but in essence our objective has not changed, to service the residents of Southern NSW with a safe, affordable efficient air connection to Melbourne,” Mr Badov added.