Council amalgamations and Qld airports

Nearby Caboolture sits on a state government lease which is due to expire in 2018, and is also coming under similar development pressures and flight restrictions.

Redcliffe and Caboolture councils will amalgamate along with Pine Rivers, whose predecessors abandoned their WW2 aerodromes to development, and who now shows no interest in aviation and therefore may just go with the cheapest solution. Both aerodromes may end up being combined at a new ‘greenfield’ site, with Redcliffe being reduced to heliport status or sold off to developers, thus offering council far higher returns.

At the Sunshine Coast, Caloundra aerodrome and the adjacent Queensland Air Museum, both of which sit on state government leases, are to be evicted for housing and road development. A forestry site some distance away has reportedly been made available and, while developers have been warned that they must pay for the aerodrome and museum relocation to this new site, many doubt the enforceability of this and fear the cost of doing so has been grossly understated.

Noosa has restricted its aerodrome to a low use field, while Maroochy Shire, which is centred on the cane town of Nambour, has been progressively expanding Maroochydore Airport to domestic jet capability with future possibility of internationals.

The three councils here will amalgamate, possibly triggering a consolidation of the area’s airports to Maroochydore where vacant land exists. The museum wishes to remain a static operation, and is seeking a tourist drawing site.

Further north, Maryborough was one of the last councils to be forced unwillingly into taking over its airport in 1993.

Even then, many predicted that the rapidly growing nearby Hervey Bay, whose loads had overtaken Maryborough’s, would eventually kill it, a point not lost when Sunshine Express stopped RPT services last year when its Brisbane loadings had dropped to less than 10,000 pax per annum.

However, Rex will soon commence a thrice daily Maryborough-Brisbane service using 34-seat Saabs, putting an amazing 64,000 seats per year onto the sector.

Qantas currently runs a two-pronged service to Hervey Bay, just 35 easy road kilometres from Maryborough.

Jetstar currently runs four A320s per week to Sydney, while QantasLink provides a thrice daily Brisbane link with network on-carriage. Virgin Blue runs a daily 737-700 from Hervey Bay to Sydney with network on-carriage, and wouldn’t wish to see any of its passengers fly Rex to Brisbane and then trans-ship.

Hervey Bay Council, which spent $13 million upgrading the airport and which has $75 million earmarked for a joint venture airport industrial park, is seeking direct Melbourne flights and would not want to see potential Melbourne passengers siphoned off by Maryborough. With both councils to amalgamate, all commercial aviation activity at Maryborough could be undertaken at Hervey Bay, which has doubled the population, but the reverse won’t occur.

Maryborough, at best, might then survive as a training and GA aerodrome (Flight Training Adelaide has announced plans to establish a pilot training operation there – see elsewhere this issue).

And possibly the most intriguing of all is Proserpine airport on the Whitsundays coast, built by Reg Ansett to service his Hayman Island resort. It grew slowly, later admitting TAA, but was then torpedoed by Ansett starting direct Hamilton Island flights and promoting that as the Whitsundays gateway. Hamilton now handles 450,000 pax per year. But thanks to Jetstar, Virgin Blue and passengers from Bowen 65km away (who lost their daily F27 services years ago), Proserpine numbers have soared from 53,000 to 250,000 pax pa in recent years.

Just 20km away inside Mackay Shire, the Laguna Quays resort – which had planned an international airport with its 3500m main runway remaining at foundation stage – bought the loss making Proserpine airport for $1. 2 million.

Proserpine, now returned to profitability, is reportedly valued at $12. 7 million post refurbishment, but courts recently overturned the sale.

The soon to be amalgamated Bowen and Whitsundays Shires and the local coastal tourist areas reportedly back the closer Proserpine Airport’s upgrade to handle projected domestic, but not international traffic. Proserpine also offers closer and cheaper access to the Whitsundays coast and the northern island resorts than either Laguna Quays or Hamilton Island.

However, state cabinet is now backing the privately funded Laguna Quays as the Whitsundays’s new international gateway – with estimates that $70 million would be required to either complete Laguna Quays or to upgrade Proserpine – and can revoke Proserpine’s lease even though council says it is prepared to buy it out.

Nearby Mackay, which has long promoted itself as the best international Whitsunday gateway, has never been prepared to fund the upgrade, and Laguna Quays would need all of Proserpine’s booming domestic traffic to be viable.

Proserpine might lose and Laguna International might win, thus also taking some of Hamilton Island’s passengers too, and Mackay might have to sit and watch as Hamilton Island and Laguna Quays jointly snare the bulk of the Whitsundays passengers.