Brisbane-based carrier Jetgo is now targeting Friday, February 2, for the highly anticipated service’s inaugural flight.

Tickets for the route, which has been dormant since Brindabella Airlines collapsed last December, could go on sale this week.

Jetgo’s managing director of airlines, Paul Bredereck, said the move was simply to guard against any unforeseen delays.

“We’re just playing it safe,” he said.

“I’d rather be safe and launch February 2 than chance January 19 and risk stuffing people around.”

Last week the airline cleared a major hurdle threatening the service’s viability when it secured an earlier landing slot into Brisbane airport.

Originally, the evening flight out of Tamworth was to arrive in the Queensland capital at 8.30pm.

The late departure time raised the prospect of having to pay Tamworth airport’s security staff about three hours of overtime a day.

Passengers would have been forced to pay dramatically more for their tickets in order to offset the costs to council.

However, Mr Bredereck said a new 7.35pm landing slot would “reduce the amount of overtime required at the Tamworth end”.

Jetgo is in the process of obtaining approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority to add the Tamworth-Brisbane route to its operating licence.