The Senate regional air inquiry is waiting on a date for one final but very important hearing.
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The inquiry into the operation, regulation and funding of air route service delivery to rural, regional and remote communities, to give it its full name has met in Cloncurry and other regional centres to hear how the high cost of air fares is hurting regional communities.
But the inquiry has yet to hear from the big airlines Qantas and Virgin and no date has yet been set for their date with the senators.
That hearing would most likely be held in Sydney or Canberra but a representative of the committee secretariat told the North West Star Wednesday that no date had been set for hearing though discussions were ongoing between senators and the parties involved.
The delay has been reflected in another extension on the inquiry’s due date.
The inquiry was originally called for in November 2017 with a report due March 30, 2018 then in February the date was moved again to September 20.
Now it’s been moved a third time.
On August 16, the Senate agreed to extend the reporting date to December 4.
The inquiry heard from North West Queenslanders in Cloncurry on April 12 (with an informal hearing in Mount Isa the same day).
It last heard testimony on July 24 in Mount Gambier, South Australia where Regional Express (Rex) gave testimony.
Rex’s deputy chair John Sharp told the inquiry they carry 1.2 million passengers doubling passenger numbers in 16 years but it was a “tough business” with 20 other regional airline operators going bust in that time.
“Our model has been to try to keep fares as affordable as possible,” Mr Sharp said. “When you do that, more people use you, because they can afford the service, and, when you do that, you get more passengers and, when you have more passengers, you need more frequency and, when you have more frequency, you have more convenience, because you can offer three return services a day from a community to a major capital instead of two and it becomes a more convenient service, and therefore people use you more often. That's been the rough model that we've used.”
Rex have introduced a community fare on Mount Isa to Cairns and other routes. Mr Sharp told the inquiry this was a substantial discount on previous prices and has proved to be very popular.