Western Queensland hopes stymied by air route contract deferral

A Translink spokesman confirmed this week that the Palaszczuk government has exercised its option to extend regulated air service contracts for 12 months.

The current contracts began in January 2015 for a five year term with two one-year extension options.

At this stage, contracts are now scheduled to expire in December 2020.

The spokesman said this had been done to ensure sufficient time to undertake a review of the network following the outcomes of the Commonwealth Senate inquiry into regional aviation.

Traeger MP Rob Katter said given the state government's past performance, the delay was not a good thing.

"If I were optimistic, it might say they were looking at additional routes and that would be hopeful to north west residents," he said. "The Senate inquiry turned out to be nothing but at least they looked into the concerns about costs - the state government on the other hand has done nothing."

Related: Passenger service review frustration boils over

Gregory MP Lachlan Millar said it was empty words for Translink to say it needed to review the outcomes of the Commonwealth Senate inquiry when the main thrust of that was that a public inquiry was needed and should be undertaken by the Australian Productivity Commission.

"Our federal government will be dealing with that. Minister Bailey needs to concern himself with his job here in Queensland."

According to Remote Area Planning and Development Board chairman Rob Chandler, the deferral meant nothing much would change for regional users in the interim.

"The Senate inquiry had no tangible outcome so I don't know what there is to consider. We'll have to wear it.

"Our main concern with regulated routes was getting a reasonable price, and that's still a concern."

Read more: Regional air routes being explored

More outspoken was Blackall-Tambo Regional Council mayor Andrew Martin, who said there didn't appear to be any appetite from the government to move with the times.

"If we go back to the same sh*t we had for the last five years, where everyone was shouldered out of the competition and we've got three miserable flights a week - we've got no opportunity to expand the fly-in, fly-out tourism trade, we don't have east-west flights, a whole heap of things we don't have.

"If the extension of this tender for another 12 months yields the stuff we've got to have, well then, good.

"But if it's more of the same then I'm going to explode. It's just not fair."

One of those stymied by the government pushing back the date for new contracts to 2021 is the Central Queensland Airport and Aerodrome Owners group.

Chairman Neil Fisher said it was not fair on western communities or regional Queensland.

"That's a real frustration because we need to advance Queensland and see our flights develop so we can develop our communities.

"We need to be working with the new tenderers for these regulated routes but the goalposts are getting moved the whole time.

"We need the state government to come on board and say, we understand the cost of flights need to come down."

Read more: East west flight plan circles landing fees

Quantifying what new contracts could mean for a region, Cr Martin said a study undertaken by the central Queensland airport group indicated that 17,000 seats could be filled on an east-west air route.

"A minimum business case to make an airline profitable on that run is 12,000, so that's 17,000 seats we're missing out on, not to mention health services that are being filled in by other means," he said.

The Translink spokesman said regional airline profitability and airfare costs were impacted because they operated with fewer passengers, smaller aircraft and with less frequency than air services between Australia's capital cities.

"We understand that affordable air services in regional and remote Queensland play a key role in providing access to essential health, education, employment services and to support social cohesion and family relationships and networks, particularly during times of personal hardship.

"Options for network changes will be evaluated prior to the next generation of regional air services contracts."

Mr Millar called on Transport Minister Mark Bailey to tell the public how they would be evaluated and how people in rural and remote Queensland could have their say.

One of those wanting a say was Cr Chandler, on behalf of local tourism operators, who he said needed a fixed pricing structure in order to be able to lock prices in and sell a travel package 12 months in advance.

"The government manages that part of the regulation, they've got the stick to do that," he said.

Mandating visibility on pricing was Mr Katter's suggestion for federal and state governments to make happen when regulated routes were reviewed.

"That's the primary thing that can be done to assist with costs," he said. "Regulating routes helps, but you've just got to accept the airline's word."

Mr Katter said he'd been shown software valued at around $20,000 that had an algorithm that tracked pricing all through the day, which he thought would be a cheap investment.

"Until you have something that tracks the inventory of pricing, it can be manipulated all the time.

"What's to stop the government mandating for something like this"