When the airline announced cancellation of the service exactly a month ago, it blamed fuel prices, poor patronage and the need to scrap the older, less efficient planes being used to fly the Illawarra's only direct route from Albion Park to Melbourne.

It had opened in 2005 to much fanfare.

But Qantas told the Mercury ticket sales had been very slow on today's two last southbound flights, and had generally lagged since news of the service's demise.

However, Shellharbour City Council's Arthur Webster remained upbeat and was not interested in shining any nostalgic light on the Qantas farewell.

The operations and services director has been responsible for the council-owned airport since 1982, and was too busy trying to sort out a replacement to wave it goodbye.

"We're not going to go out there and bawl our eyes out. It's just a sign of the times with the airline industry and fuel prices. There's a whole lot of them reducing flights," he said.

"We're getting out to consultants at the moment to look at the capabilities of the runway and the types of aircraft that can use it. It's not just the length of the runway, it's the topography of the area, with the hills."

Mr Webster is confident of securing another carrier, but this time a budget service aimed at outbound tourism. Illawarra residents visiting the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Coffs Harbour, he suggests.

The QantasLink service was moulded to fit business passengers, particularly BlueScope Steel staff, and had been criticised for failing to embrace recreational flyers.

There were no weekend flights, and Monday morning departures were said to be exorbitantly priced.

Mr Webster was confident the airport had a future, and cited more than 18,000 passengers in the past year as nothing to scoff about.

"We don't cry over spilt milk," he said. "We can all sit around and cry about it, it's sad, but we've got to move on."

QantasLink commercial general manager Elsa D'Alessio said losses could not be sustained any longer.

"It's always sad when we have to go. We never pioneer a flight with the intention to do this. The market has just been very difficult," she said.

Ms D'Alessio said sales had slumped since the withdrawal announcement, which was typical, and was particularly slow for the final flights.

She said the last flight back today, leaving Melbourne at 5.45pm, was proving popular with about two thirds of the 36-seater full, but that was not unusual.

The final flight to Melbourne would be at 7.50pm.