HASHTAG HANDOUTS
HAVE you been to Townsville Airport lately? I was out there last week where I was able to indulge in my new hobby of seeing just how much a business is prepared to allow its asset to depreciate while asking for public dollars to make over their privately owned asset.
Judging by the carpet, I would say a LOT.
Our Commonwealth Games visitors must have been super impressed by the two walls emblazoned with sales pitches to convince us a ticket- tax funded $ 80 million upgrade is something we should get enthusiastic about.
It starts off with, “$ 80M upgrade for less than the cost of a cup of coffee”, followed by what can only be an admission of their own unwillingness to put their hands in their pockets – “14 years since the last upgrade”. Yes, 14 years, and it goes on: “178 jobs created, bigger and better terminal, and $ 68 million injected into our economy.”
So we spend $ 80 million via a ticket tax to get $ 68 million “back into our economy” – whose economy are we talking about exactly?
Tourists and Townsvilleans alike walk past a wall emblazoned with a call to arms, “It’s time to # GetOnBoardTSV”.
The problem is, no one agrees – the # GetOnBoardTSV hashtag has only been used on Twitter once, back last August, laughably by the consultant team that launched it, and only twice on Instagram – hardly a show of support by the travelling public.
Yet once through security, we are subjected to more of this passive aggressive panhandling in the area immediately in front of the Qantas Lounge.
The new blockade of stained seats has clearly been designed to antagonise those using Qantas facilities. It reminds me of kids who share a bedroom and draw a line down the middle when they are fighting. Unfortunately this puerile tactic also antagonises anyone trying to get to the bathrooms, or catch up with anyone held captive in the newly arranged seating compound.
Unsurprisingly, the airport upgrade is supported by Virgin, because Virgin wants a business lounge. Which begs the question, why are families, tourists and holiday- makers being asked to pay for it?
Toowoomba, Emerald, Hervey Bay, and Maroochydore are examples of airports successfully owned and run by local councils.
If Townsville City Council owned Townsville Airport, rates would help fund it, as it would if the airport promised to Adani was to remain council- owned. But we don’t, and it won’t, so let these businesses fund their own improvements.
QAL regularly quotes rising passenger figures as a compelling reason for an upgrade, yet when our Mayor called for a Qantas boycott to force the airline’s hand, they retaliated by scrapping our full Bali flights, so it’s already cost us, the travelling public.
Keep holding out Qantas, Jetstar and Tiger – low ticket prices for the general public is a priority over being able to quaff free drinks in a business lounge.
Let QAL spend some of the parking fees, landing fees, business rents, inbound and outbound passenger fees and other charges that have accumulated for the past 14 years, instead of expecting us to.
And for a hashtag that might get more traction; how about # GoFundYourselfQAL