Airport owner John Wagner blames Labor for loss of critical international Cathay freight flight

Australia’s only privately owned airport has lost a crucial international freight flight, with the operator blaming Labor’s ‘city-centric’ policies for being unseated by Brisbane.

The owner of Australia’s only privately funded airport, Toowoomba Wellcamp, has blamed the Albanese government’s “anti-regional Australia” policies for the loss of a major international airline to Brisbane.

Cathay Pacific has flown into the privately owned airport once a week since 2016, to collect 135 tonnes of airfreight from local producers and deliver it to Hong Kong.

But from mid-June, the 747-8F freighter will fly into Brisbane instead of Toowoomba, in a decision Cathay Pacific said was intended to “streamline operations”.

John Wagner, whose family famously built Wellcamp Airport in under two years, said it was disappointing for Toowoomba. He blamed changes to bilateral air services agreements which favoured major airports at the expense of the regions.

“It’s just typical Labor anti-regional policy,” said Mr Wagner.

“What happens outside of the cities is just meaningless to them.”

Wagner chairman John Wagner at Wellcamp Airport. Picture: Glenn Hunt

The Department of Infrastructure and Transport confirmed bilateral agreements with Hong Kong were updated in October, giving airlines that operated freight services unrestricted capacity arrangements.

Essentially that meant Cathay Pacific no longer had to service regional airports, and could concentrate all services, passenger and freight, at the four majors.

General manager of Food Leaders Australia Toowoomba and Surat Basin Enterprise, Rowie Beveridge, said the loss of the weekly freighter flight was a massive blow to producers, who now faced shipping or railing their goods to Brisbane.

She said Wellcamp was a “world class facility” that was being severely under-utilised.

“Seventy per cent of everything we grow is exported and the diversity in our region is huge, so 80 per cent of what is growing across the country, you can actually find it in a two-hour radius of Toowoomba,” Ms Beveridge said.

“Now people will just have to resort to road and rail into Brisbane, which will put more pressure on the already compromised and weight-restricted Bremer Bridge on the Warrego Highway.”

Tonnes of grain-fed beef, fresh lettuce, broccoli and avocados regularly filled the cavernous 747-8F, along with engineering parts.

It’s the second blow in the space of a year to Toowoomba Wellcamp, which was hit hard by the collapse of budget carrier Bonza.

Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport has been much quieter since the demise of Bonza last year.

Mr Wagner has also made no secret of the fact he would like to see more frequent services to Sydney by Qantaslink, which currently operates five return flights a week.

He was hopeful other overseas carriers would fill the void left by Cathay Pacific, which he said had demonstrated the airport’s capabilities.

“We don’t have a curfew, we have a long runway and our support services are second to none,” he said.

Cathay Pacific southwest Pacific regional general manager Frosti Lau said the airline had a “strong history with Wellcamp Airport and the Wagner family, and hoped there would be opportunities to work together in future”.

“We want to extend a heartfelt thank you to all those who have contributed to the success of this flight over the last decade,” Mr Lau said.

At the same time, Mr Lau said Cathay was “excited to be bringing our weekly freighter operation to Brisbane” with the cargo service complementing the capacity on 12 weekly passenger flights out of the city.

Brisbane Airport welcomed the increased freight capacity to a key market.

“Hong Kong International Airport is the world’s number one air cargo hub, providing our exporters with unparalleled access to global markets to deliver Queensland beef, seafood,

and high-value goods such as pharmaceuticals and manufactured products directly to Asia and beyond,” Brisbane executive general manager of aviation, Ryan Both said.

Originally published as Airport owner John Wagner blames Labor for loss of critical international Cathay freight flight