Keeping Mount Isa airfares on the radar
I am currently a stay home parent and a long term local resident of Mount Isa. I have been concerned about airfare prices in and out of Isa for many years. There has been a lot of good stories written on this, but it hasn’t seemed to help. I think if we can keep this on everyone’s radar, it may get the right people to sit up and take notice.
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We need a parliamentary inquiry into the price of airfares in regional areas.
I don’t believe that the airlines are deliberately trying to make regional Australia pay more than metropolitan Australia. It seems to me the airlines business model is working well for metro areas but is a disadvantage to regional areas. This needs to be addressed. Giving us a week or four days to book one of their ‘sale fares’, which can be as far ahead as six to 12 months in advance doesn’t work for regional areas, residents can’t plan an event in a week and get people booked on flights. A lot of families don’t have the extra cash to book and pay that far ahead.
We need to put pressure on airlines to change their business model, examine the size of their aircrafts, look at changing how they distribute the price of seats, sales or even benchmark with an overseas domestic carrier that can provide a better service to their regional areas.
While it was great to see the North West Star article on Thursday “Airport’s cautious support”, if QAL are serious about helping regional Queensland with affordable airfare prices, reducing fees into Mount Isa’s airport, making us competitive with Townsville and Gold Coast airports, would be a huge step in the right direction. This even playing field, could be an incentive for airlines to increase flights and attract other airline companies to this area, creating competition and more volume for the airport.
Mount Isa doesn’t have the same amount of traffic as Townsville and Gold Coast airports, but we also don’t have the same expenses and infrastructure. QAL needs to align infrastructure with the needs of the passengers and services.
On investigating airport fees, I found a list of airport charges on Senator Pauline Hanson’s Facebook page where she claimed airlines paid $7886 to land in Mount Isa, which I calculated it differently using the Mount Isa Airport Website. I contacted the Senator’s advisors to find out where they got their figures from and it was directly from the airlines.
List of Airport Fee’s/Landing Fee’s
Comparison; Aircraft 737-800, Tonnes 79.01, Available seats 176, Load factor 75%, Passengers 132
$7,886 Mount Isa (Airline Figures)
$5,000 Mount Isa (Airport Website)
$3,021 Townsville
$3,003 Gold Coast
Clearly airport fees are passed on to passengers. QAL brought Mount Isa and Townsville Airports in 2005. The previous year QAL had made an EBITDA of $18,652,000. QAL now make an EBITDA of $88,000,000 (2016). Mount Isa Airport had an increase in EBITDA of 47% in its first year of QAL ownership. (EBITDA - recorded earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation). Mount Isa Airport has had an enormous increase in traffic and passenger numbers since then.
QAL is a private company and they can charge what they want, but it doesn’t seem reasonable we are asking some private companies to keep providing discounts and to cut their profit line (Qantas, Virgin, Rex), but not the other private companies, QAL and other regional airports.
We need to be careful the pressure applied to airlines to reduce costs doesn’t end with reducing services. I’ve lived here when we’ve had the one flight to Brisbane and Townsville a day and it’s heartbreaking when you’re prepared to pay what ever it takes to get to a family emergency or event, but there are no seats or flights.
Qantas, Virgin, Air New Zealand, Rex and Tigerair have established a new industry group to advocate on public aviation policy and will be addressing airport charges. Professor Graeme Samuel is the chair of the group, called Airlines for Australia and New Zealand (A4ANZ). I have contacted Professor Samuel, requesting him to use Mount Isa’s airport as a case study.
Earlier in the year, Rod Sims ACCC chair had called for more powers to curb airport charges. I have also written to Mr Sims, asking for him to use Mount Isa Airport as a case study. I’ve also e-mailed QAL Chief Operating Officer Kevin Gill with my concerns a couple of weeks ago. Kevin Gill was kind enough to give me a call. I’ve also written to Alan Joyce, CEO of Qantas.
Mount Isa has lost an incredible amount of tourism especially affecting our major tourist event, the Rodeo. Imagine if tourists and ex Mount Isans could fly here for the same price as they fly from Brisbane to Townsville or Sydney.
The high cost of airfares affects businesses and lifestyle and is a major factor in residents leaving the region. I and other residents can not hold events to get people from Townsville and Brisbane because the cost of the airfare is more than they would spend on an international trip, including accommodation. For my family to go on holidays, the Mount Isa Brisbane route is the highest part of our budget.
The airfares are hurting the Mount Isa residents and especially retirees, single income households and residents who rely on pensions of all kinds, and we should all expect to have the same affordable travel as our fellow Australian’s who live in metropolitan areas. We need to be rewarding people who move to isolated parts of Australia to get work, they often leave behind family, friends and access to better services and facilities.
This is a great place to call home, but it also needs to be an affordable place to live.
Danielle Slade
Mount Isa