12th January 2018 Wayne Murphy Senior Export Adviser NSW Department of Industry Via email:
[email protected] RE: Inquiry into the provision of air route service delivery to Regional NSW Dear Wayne, Thank you for requesting our subsidiary, the Australian Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA), to provide input to the NSW Government's submission to the Commonwealth Senate inquiry on the provision or air route service delivery to regional NSW. Ivan Tan forwarded this request through to us. It is quite surprising that Regional Express (Rex), as the largest regional operator of regional air services in NSW, has not been asked for input given the focus of the inquiry. We are also astounded that we were given only two days to respond. It probably reflects the importance the department attaches to this initiative. The deadline is very rushed given the importance of some of the issues we wish to raise. As such, we have done the best we can by listing some key issues, and have attached references to assist in outlining each issue in detail. 1) High Airport Charges We have attached a submission to the WA Government (item 1 – attachment 1) in response to their inquiry on Regional Airfares. This submission sets out the challenges we and other regional airlines face with high airport charges and actions that can be taken by local government to make routes viable. All that has been said for the WA inquiry remains relevant for the NSW situation. We also want to emphasise that in many occasions these high airport charges have been driven by non- essential and extravagant airport upgrades often partially funded by State Governments with absolutely no consultation with operators.