Earlier this week the Mount Isa ALP had congratulated Cloncurry of getting a hearing date but questioned why key Mount Isa representatives had not been pro-active in trying to get the Committee to meet in Mount Isa.

However Cr Joyce McCulloch confirmed they had lobbied to hold a hearing into the “operation, regulation and funding of air route service delivery to rural, regional and remote communities”.

“As soon as we knew they were holding an inquiry we wrote to (Inquiry chair) Senator Barry O’Sullivan requesting an inquiry hearing be held in Mount Isa,” Cr McCulloch said.

“They sent us a very nice letter back declining that request telling us they were going to be holding a hearing in Cloncurry and Longreach.”

Cr McCulloch confirmed Mount Isa City Council would be speaking at the Cloncurry hearing.

“Considering the huge role we played in getting an inquiry, we’ll definitely be there,” she said.

“Our population wants to see a fair go with airline prices.”

Cr McCulloch admitted there was only a limited amount of things governments could do in an unregulated airline market.

“We are hoping the inquiry will pick up plenty of noise and get the rest of Australia taking notice how unfair it is that regional and remote communities really do get slugged for air fares,” she said.

Mount Isa City Council put in a 32-page submission to the inquiry called “Un-Fare, Un-Australian - Why is it so?”

In its submission MICC said the aviation reforms in the 1990s benefitted passengers on the major Australian aviation routes with lower airfares generating significant increases in passenger numbers.

“But, like other regional and remote centres around Australia, these benefits have by-passed air services to Mount Isa,” council said in its submission.

“Discount airfares do not exist for airline services to and from Mount Isa, passenger numbers at Mount Isa airport are now at the same level as 30 years ago (and) airfares to and from Mount Isa are between two to three times higher than east coast Australian routes.”

Council said their research showed Mount Isa’s airfares on a dollar per kilometre basis were even regularly higher than airfares for other comparable locations across Australia.​ 

“These high airfares act as a significant brake on business in Mount Isa and limit the ability of the local economy to expand and diversify,” the submission said.

“These factors make it difficult for Mount Isa to attract and retain people, especially those who require personal and professional mobility. This cannot continue. Our community is suffering.”

The airline inquiry hearing meets at the Community Precinct in Cloncurry on Thursday April 12 commencing 9am.