HILL SAYS DITCH QANTAS FLIGHTS
MAYOR Jenny Hill has urged Townsville residents to “vote with their feet”, accusing Qantas of not supporting Townsville after the launch of a campaign to convince the national carrier to back a proposed $ 40 million Townsville Airport terminal redevelopment.
The Townsville Airport campaign, which launched on Saturday, came after more than two years of stalled negotiations with Qantas over a proposed $ 3 passenger charge increase aimed at recouping the cost of the upgrade.
Cr Hill said Qantas had been operating smaller 100seat Boeing 717 planes on the Townsville to Brisbane route and the business community was starting to choose not to fly with them.
“If people are going to pay the same money as they always have, I’d want a better service,” she said.
“If people want a better quality experience, they should look at what kinds of planes are flying and my advice is don’t fly in a 717.”
Cr Hill said people should make informed choices about which airline they support.
“Townsville should be looking to support a supplier who supports our community,” she said.
“I don’t see Qantas emblems on any of our sporting clubs or on any of our local events. They pulled out of that a long time ago and now it seems that they’ve pulled out of supporting Townsville and the airport redevelopment.”
A Qantas spokeswoman said negotiations had stalled after Townsville Airport re- jected a counter- proposal in January.
“We understand why the airport wants to rally community support for the upgrade through a public campaign, but it’s a strange way to negotiate with your main customer,” she said.
“At the start of this year, we put a counter proposal to the airport that would see Qantas increase the amount we pay per passenger.
“It was less than the airport wants but enough to pay for upgrades that we think are necessary. The airport rejected that proposal in January and they’ve yet to come back to us with a firm alternative.”
The spokeswoman said Qantas understood why the redevelopment was important to the community.
“But as a business, Qantas can only make investments we know are going to stack up financially, otherwise it risks the viability of these routes,” she said.
Townsville Airport chief executive officer Kevin Gill said the program of works extended beyond the terminal.
“We are aware the congestion is not limited to the terminal, the precinct road network is also feeling the strain and we understand the frustration experienced by our passengers, so the reconfiguration of the road network is a priority and design works on that project have recently commenced,” he said.