Emma Pritchard

Clarence Valley Council (CVC) General Manager Laura Black has confirmed expressions of interest have been extended to three airlines including Qantas, FlyPelican and Link Airways, to gauge interest in resuming operations at Clarence Valley Regional Airport.

No commercial flights have been available locally since June 30 when Regional Express (REX) withdrew from the area, coinciding with the end of the Federal Government’s Regional Airline Network Support (RANS) program.

Speaking with the Clarence Valley Independent last week, Ms Black revealed she is confident of receiving a response from one of the airlines approached by council at the end of October and said it would be a fantastic outcome to see services resume as soon as possible.

“We need an airline that will provide a reliable service to our community,” she said.

“Council have been in discussion with Qantas since early last year.

“We were anticipating the departure of REX as they had indicated that once the subsidy expired there was a fair chance they would walk away, and we’ve been preparing for it.

“The issue with the airport is it cannot facilitate larger aircrafts, so that puts us in a restrictive position.

“Ideally, the best outcome for us would be to attract an airline which has a fleet of smaller aircrafts which can land at the airport without redeveloping the site.”

Ms Black said council is looking for an airline “who can service us reasonably well now, with a view to expanding operations and connecting services into the future”, adding it would be much more desirable and economical for passengers to have access to morning and evening flights on the same day, reducing travel time and accommodation costs.

“That would be the best situation we could hope for,” she said.

As they await further communication from the airlines, Ms Black said council has begun examining other potential future uses for the Clarence Valley Regional Airport site, including the construction of an Emergency Coordination Centre (ECC).

CVC Mayor Ian Tiley identified the site as a suitable location earlier this year, and the project was previously flagged by Minister for Emergency Services and Resilience Steph Cooke during a visit to the Clarence Valley in February.

Council is also working on delivering water supply to the site through the construction of a pipeline which will enable the Rural Fire Service (RFS) to use the location more effectively during firefighting operations.

Council is presently surveying the location to determine what area is available for the ECC.

The project is currently part of ongoing discussions with the RFS District Liaison Committee.