To give its more correct title it is about “the operation, regulation and funding of air route service delivery to rural, regional and remote communities” and that means there are three parts to the inquiry, operation, regulation and funding.

From the North West Queensland perspective we have Qantas and Virgin flying into our region from Brisbane and Townsville and Rex flying in from smaller centres.

On the face of it there is sufficient competition to keep fares at market rates but as we all know that is simply not happening.

We saw similar things happening in Western Australia and an inquiry there found that the larger airlines particularly were uncooperative with the inquiry.

It seems the airlines felt that that they could do whatever they wanted and get away with treating regional and rural air travellers with contempt safe in the knowledge that their core profitable business in metropolitan areas was unaffected.

Well it’s about time that those airlines get the message it is no longer acceptable to fleece regional and rural passengers.

Yes, I understand that smaller regional operations don’t have the economies of scale of the big Sydney-Melbourne routes.

But that is no excuse to charge thousands of dollars for regular flights.

A message needs to be sent to these aviator robber barons that it is simply not good enough and if they fail to heed that message, then those routes need to be opened up to other operators that don’t feel that your wallet is essentially their wallet.

This is an issue that affects us all.

The North West Star is putting together a submission which we hope to complete by the end of the coming weekend.

We are still looking for experiences from members of the public to add to our submission so if you are in the North West (or travel regularly to the North West) and want to add your story please send it to me at derek.barry@fairfaxmedia.com.au by January 26.

The more experiences from members of the public submitted to the inquiry the better.

Derek Barry