"More people want to fly here but we don't have enough seats for them to sit in the terminal when they are waiting to get onto the airplane," she said.

"We want to welcome them here but need the infrastructure."

The opposition member's comments came after new City of Greater Bendigo planning documents showed the council had increased the number of people it believed could come through the airport every year by 2030.

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The council now believes it could attract nine times as many passengers by the end of the decade if a new terminal is built, judging by population projections and the success of Qantas flights that have started between Bendigo and Sydney.

The council is currently exploring possibilities of increasing the number of flights from Sydney as well as potentially opening up routes to Canberra, Adelaide and Hobart.

The council has been lobbying for federal government money since 2017.

The government is currently considering a fresh council grant application but Ms Chesters said the Coalition had already had multiple opportunities to fund the "urgently needed" terminal since 2017.

"I am not hopeful that the funding will come through and I will keep calling for it," she said.

The federal government has unlocked funds for other airport projects including $465,000 to upgrade the runway and another $5 million in 2015 for a larger runway.

The council has lodged a planning application for the terminal with its own planning department in a push to make sure airport redevelopment plans are as close to shovel ready as possible if and when new federal funds flow in.

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Be.Bendigo chief executive Denis Bice welcomed that application.

He said a new terminal would open up opportunities for companies to sell goods and services interstate and open the door for more cargo routes.

He said estimates about the number of passengers a new terminal could attract showed how much of a boon upgrades could bring the city.

"It not only would work for our existing businesses. It would be a key platform to introduce new businesses to Bendigo," Mr Bice said.

"Bendigo has proven to be a popular place to invest in recent years. We have seen that with the new hotels that will soon be popping up in the city."

That includes three hotels in the centre of Bendigo which proponents hope will bring more tourists.

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