Q&A with Wellcamp Airport chairman John Wagner

To learn more, Australian Aviation sat down with Wellcamp Airport chairman John Wagner.

Can you give our readers a short history of the Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport, and why you and your family decided to build it?

We as the Wagner Corporation decided to build the airport in 2012, and the reason for that was primarily due to other developments that we had in the works at the Wellcamp Business Park, which is the precinct in which the airport now stands. Wellcamp Business Park sits about 15 kilometres outside of the historic Darling Downs town of Toowoomba, and about 150 kilometres from Brisbane’s CBD. So, as I said, Wagner Corporation had a lot of development planned for the area, and we still do, however we were struggling to attract investors to Toowoomba, simply because it had no connectivity. So, as a result of that, we as a family made a decision to build an airport.

And it’s important to note that the airport’s role is not only important for the expansion of the business park, but it’s also critical to the regional economy here in Toowoomba. Toowoomba is the second biggest inland city in Australia, after the nation’s capital Canberra. And we didn’t have an airport of any note, we had a little aerodrome in the city centre that couldn’t even take a QLink Dash 8 400. Now we’re finally connected.

Wagner Corporation began construction of the airport in 2013, and completed it just 19 months later in 2014. Qantas was our inaugural customer, with multiple weekly services between Wellcamp and Sydney. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Can you tell us more about what projects you currently have in place?

Currently, we’re building our new Regional Transport Distribution Centre. It’s currently under construction and will be finished in June. So that’s a 3,500-square metre, temperature controlled freight facility, not only for air freight but also for sea freight. In addition to that, we have plans to build additional hangars at the airport, as well as various other building projects in and around the business park. We are currently in ongoing negotiations with the state and federal facility governments over the potential construction of an overseas arrivals COVID-19 quarantine facility in the business park and adjacent to the airport. We are continuing to work with and expand the Qantas Group Pilot Academy, which is based at the airport. Additionally, adjacent to the airport, we have agreed to build a multimodal transport hub – that’s road, rail and air – which will be the only one of its kind in the country. And that project will work in tandem with the upcoming Inland Rail project, which will connect through the airport. That project will allow us to get produce and goods from northern Victoria and have them up here and ready to be loaded onto a plane in 20 hours. We believe that over the next four or five years, the Inland Rail project could change the game for freight in Australia and we’re excited about being a part of that.

On top of all that, we’ve also been awarded a $40 million grant from the state government, and we’re in the process of awaiting to hear about another $40 million grant from the federal government, in order to build a brand-new, world-class entertainment and motorsports complex adjacent to the airport. So, that project is currently in the planning and early design phases, while we wait for the outcome on that federal government grant, which we’re quite hopeful for. We have a lot of projects on the go in and around Wellcamp Airport.

So, in 2021 it’s impossible not to mention the devastating impact that COVID-19 has brought on the industry. However, what we have seen is so many innovators, like yourself, getting creative in the face of crisis. Do you think COVID has opened up any opportunities for Wellcamp?

Absolutely, and my personal view is that, while COVID has obviously been a disaster for passenger travel, we’ve tried from the beginning to see what benefits and opportunities we can take from it. For example, while we have been a hub for freight for many years, we now have three major international freight planes that come through the airport every week. We also now have long-term aircraft storage available at the airport, for airlines that have grounded parts of their fleet. And that came about as an opportunity for us as the facility at Alice Springs was full and airlines needed more places to store aircraft. So being out here in Toowoomba, we’re west of the Great Divide, so while our humidity here isn’t as low as Alice Springs, it’s still far lower than Brisbane, Gold Coast or Sydney. We’re expecting to bring in quite a few more aircraft for storage over the next six to 12 months, and that’s just another revenue stream for us while traffic through the airport is subdued.

Looking more long term, what’s next on the agenda for Wellcamp Airport itself?

The longer-term strategy for now is to get domestic traffic back to where it was pre-COVID first and foremost, and then grow it up from there in the future. We’re also looking to drive international passenger traffic through Wellcamp once international borders open, and I think we have the ability to attract that, we’re already in discussion with carriers on how to achieve that goal over the coming years. We also certainly will look to grow our freight business and presence, particularly in the international market. There’s also plans to grow the footprint of the airport itself through expanding the terminal, both outwards and upwards, though I don’t see that being required anytime just yet. But we have approval to build the second stage expansion of the terminal. Should we get regular international passenger traffic through the airport in the coming years then we would be looking to add on an international wing of the terminal, however again, this is in the longer term.