Jetstar’s call will hurt city

TOWNSVILLE Enterprise chief executive officer Patricia O’Callaghan said Jetstar’s decision to cancel the region’s flights to Bali would “definitely impact” the city’s brand.

Ms O’Callaghan said the city now had to look at other avenues to pursue.

“At this point in time Jetstar has indicated they won’t continue operations past the time frame next year,” she said.

“This wasn’t just about Bali, it was about opening access.”

Ms O’Callaghan said routes were being strategically analysed.

“It’s not about simply marketing, it’s much deeper than that,” she said.

“We need to keep going and keep analysing new routes.

“The community want international air access.

“It does definitely impact our brand and we’re going to have to work harder.

“We have to open up our airs if we want to be a global city.”

During a teleconference yesterday, it is understood Senator Ian Macdonald questioned whether Townsville Airport’s chief operating officer Kevin Gill should step down from either his role as Townsville Enterprise chairman or Queensland Airports Limited, which owns Townsville Airport, after it was suggested he knew about Jetstar’s decision for some time.

However, Mr Gill said he did not want to provide com- ment on that suggestion.

“We’re disappointed to learn of the decision,” he said.

“This was a commercial decision and we respect that.”

Mr Gill said it was important to note that the infrastructure development contribution was not applied to international services.

“We’ve been in discussions with Jetstar for weeks, not months,” he said.

When asked whether the Townsville City Council should provide money to keep the flights going, Mr Gill said “air routes needed to be commercially viable”.

Senator Macdonald said the time of the flights “had never been conducive to a lot of people”.

“I’ve always thought that just flying Townsville to Bali was never going to be sustainable in the long run,” he said.

When asked whether QAL had known about Jetstar’s decision for some time, Senator Macdonald said until he knew if the details of yesterday’s teleconference could be made public he did not want to comment.

“It is operating until March next year and one way to get Jetstar to change its mind is for North Queensland to patronise it to death over that period to make them understand that this is a premature decision,” he said.

“We really need some more serious business travellers and that requires business destinations and Bali is not a business destination.”