Launching from Horseshoe Beach at around 5:40am, the surprise appearance of the giant aircraft in the sky was courtesy of Hunter Valley company ‘Balloon Aloft’. 

General Manager David Bain said the flights doubled as a festive celebration for staff and unique marketing exercise in the lead-up to Christmas. 

"We sat there with the balloon stood up waiting for the sun to come up, and as soon as it did – we took off. 

"We've been doing one annually, or once every two years as a bit of a Christmas celebration for our staff and pilots," Mr Bain said. 

"It's a pretty fun way to do it over Newcastle.

"We usually fly around Pokolbin and Lovedale vineyard area; we actually had a flight there this morning, so one of our pilots and a crew member stayed back there."

"At the moment we're running a Christmas voucher special, so just getting people talking about balloons and hopefully booking a flight or two as a Christmas present."

The flight duration lasted around 45 minutes until the trio of balloons landed safely on a cricket pitch in Hamilton South. 

The unexpected marketing manoeuvre brought pleasant intrigue from early risers with a flurry of social media posts capturing the moment. 

"No one [knew], we alerted Williamtown obviously that we'd be flying in the area, but other than that not too many knew about it,” Mr Bain said.

"We just woke a lot of people up, which they all seemed to enjoy.”