The owning company of the Mount Isa Airport – which also owns the Longreach, Townsville and Gold Coast airports – held its stakeholder meeting at the Red Earth Hotel last Thursday. 

During the meeting the company’s chief executive Chris Mills acknowledged the importance that airports had on the economies in the regional communities they serviced. 

“We know from our perspective and I think from your perspective as well the real challenge is around airfare prices in regional Queensland,” Mr Mills said. 

“And there’s no easy solution to that. 

“We will continue to work with and lobby the airlines and look for those opportunities but we appreciate you are part of that discussion in that dialogue, with the airlines of course.” 

Mr Mills said that the company had spoken to Mount Isa State MP Rob Katter about this issue. Mr Katter had pushed for a parliamentary airfare inquiry. Any article about airfare prices shared on social media is almost guaranteed to include a list of criticisms and examples of costs as comments. 

Cheaper airfares would be to the interest of the company, according to Mr Mills.

“The more we can do to grow the volume of passengers coming through the airport the better it is for us, and the better it is for the community. 

“We have a real focus on what we can do to help with the price of airfares in the regions.” 

Mr Mills explained further to Fairfax Media that the company did need to work with the airlines that supplied the services to the airports. 

“Airlines and airports, it’s a natural partnership,” he said. 

“We are interested in seeing more passengers come through the airports. 

“For us, it’s more of a volume story.” 

Mr Mills said that passenger numbers through the Mount Isa Airport was an economic “barometre of activity” for the region. 

Since 2013 passenger numbers had decreased 30 per cent.

However, the last four months had shown a growth in passenger numbers.

“It’s great to see,” he said.

“(I’m) not going to say it’s a rebound just yet,” he said.