Airlines have hub doubts

AIRLINES have raised doubts about the commercial viability of operating international flights into Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, where a new quarantine facility is to be built.

Qld Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has given the facility the green light despite a lack of support from Canberra.

AIRLINES have raised doubts about the commercial viability of operating international flights into Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, where a new 1000-bed quarantine facility is to be built.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced last month her government had given the facility the green light despite a lack of support from Canberra.

The federal government claimed Wellcamp was unsuitable for quarantine accommodation because it was not close to a tertiary hospital and instead backed a site at Pinkenba near Brisbane Airport.

The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia, which has 33 carrier members, said there were a number of commercial and operational challenges involved in flying into regional areas.

BARA managing director Barry Abrams said it was difficult to see the commercial benefit to an airline of splitting operations between Brisbane and Wellcamp.

“(An airline) would have to have its own staffing out there, for check-in, ground handling, baggage, and then there’s the issue of (plane) crews,” Mr Abrams said.

“Would there be a police escort of crews to a designated hotel and what is going to be the cost to the airline? There are many, many challenges.”

He said the size of the facility meant airlines would be restricted to about 64 passengers a day on the way into Toowoomba, and “probably nobody” on the way out, casting doubt on commercial viability for airlines.

Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines currently operate freight-only flights into Wellcamp, several times a week.

Singapore Airlines regional vice-president Louis Arul said for that reason it “may not be so difficult to start up operations (to Wellcamp) repatriating Australians back home”.

“If all ports in Australia have home quarantine, I wonder if Toowoomba will be necessary? We could probably serve Australians through other ports, so it’s hard to know where we will be on that issue.”

Wellcamp chairman John Wagner, whose family famously built the airport in 19 months, dismissed BARA’s concerns, saying they were poorly informed.

He said Wellcamp was “a fully operational international airport” that could easily scale up.

“We already have check-in, ground handling and baggage workers and we can get extra (Australian Border Force) officers in from Brisbane,” Mr Wagner said. “We do need to get both governments to be part of the process, and we would be keen to talk to airlines.”

Despite moves towards home quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals, Mr Wagner was adamant the Wellcamp facility would not be a white elephant.

“There’s going to be a need for some level of quarantine in Australia for many years,” he said.

The first 500 beds at the facility were expected to be ready by the end of the year, with the remainder to be completed in early 2022.