Maranoa Regional Council vote for ratepayers to prop up four year REX Airlines deal which will see Roma Airport run at a loss
Maranoa Regional Council has voted in favour of a deal with Rex Airlines which will result in cheaper flights, but see Roma Airport operate at a loss. Here’s what residents can expect.
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After extensive reviews and two community consultations, Maranoa Regional Council has narrowly voted in favour of a four year partnership with Rex Airlines, which will see Roma Airport operate at a guaranteed loss.
The deal between council and Rex promises to deliver Maranoa Region residents with flights to Brisbane costing as little as $169 each way as part of the MRC Residential Fare Scheme.
Under the proposal, small to medium Maranoa businesses can also cash in and secure one way tickets to Brisbane for $250 as part of the MRC SME Fare Scheme.
At a special meeting, councillors voted 5-4 to approve a partnership designed to bring cheaper, more frequent flights to Roma by capping the passenger tax Rex has to pay at a fixed rate of $29.91. However, some councillors expressed concern that ratepayers will have to cover the shortfall of the partnership after figures show the airport will now run at a loss.
Rex brought the proposed partnership to council in May earlier this year, and is set to start the scheme from January 1 2023 and until December 31 2026.
Mayor Tyson Golder showed his support for the partnership and described the November 30 special meeting as “an historic day” for the region.
“We’ve had some upset about the high cost of airfares and inflexibility,” Mr Golder said.
“The Maranoa will have a scheme that no other part of Australia has and it proves we can have affordable, frequent airfares all the time for residents and businesses of the Maranoa.”
Mr Golder said he believed securing cheaper airfares through this partnership was the key to sustainably growing the region’s population.
“I would like to see us sustainably grow and double our population in twenty years and the only way we’re going to do it, is to do different things,” he said.
However, there wasn’t a consensus and opinions were evenly split among councillors.
Maranoa councillor Cameron O’Neil strongly advised against the partnership, citing the high cost to ratepayers and the airport running at a guaranteed loss as the main reasons for their opposition.
“It will be the rate base of the Maranoa that will ultimately pay for the shortfall of the operating cost of the airport for the next four years,” he said.
“I’m sure there will be a counter argument that there are other assets of council that are subsidised by the rate base, but that doesn’t make it right.
“There will be a sugar hit here, people will be excited about cheaper airfares, I’m confident of that, but in the long run someone has to pay.
“Not to mention, a future council will have to do an upgrade to the airstrip and in my recollection it costs somewhere in the vicinity of $8m when we did that strip in 2018.
“Council was proudly able to put in nearly $4m towards that from the reserves of the revenue generated by the airport, but that won’t be the case if this is supported today.”
Mr O’Neil instead urged councillors to shift the responsibility of providing affordable regional flight to the state government.
“But fundamentally, my concern is we’re a regulated route like many of our regional cousins in Western Queensland and I say to my fellow councillors here, how many of those local governments are having to prop up a regulated route,” he said.
“The regulated route is there to ensure we as regional communities have an air service and I question why we, the Maranoa community, are now being asked that if we want cheaper flights or airfares we’re going to have to foot the bill?
“Quite frankly, I think we are letting the state government off the hook here.
“We have community members here that never fly, have never flown, will never fly and yet through their rates will now be cross-subsidising this business unit of council.”
The Rex Airlines Partnership Proposal was carried by the Maranoa Regional Council on November 30 by a margin of 5-4.
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