On 2 December 1920 (predating the airport's opening) one of the earliest flights to land in Bathurst arrived with mail from Sydney. The aircraft, owned by the Bathurst Aviation Service Company, landed on a paddock at Kelso. It was another 17 years later in July 1937 that General Air Transport commenced a weekly freight service transporting fresh fish from Nowra to Bathurst. This weekly flight landed in a paddock near to town and the lack of an aerodrome for Bathurst was noted in correspondence relating to this new air freight service.