Alice Springs Town Council considering using ‘$250m lifeline’ to promote tourism

Alice Springs Town Council wants the federal government to consider using a portion of the $250m federal ‘lifeline’ go towards tourism in the region, following a meeting with Qantas.

Alice Springs Town Council wants the federal government to consider using a portion of the $250m “lifeline” funding to encourage tourism in the area.

The proposition comes after members of the council, alongside members of the NT Chamber of Commerce, members of Tourism Central Australia and federal MP Marion Scrymgour, met with Qantas representatives in Alice Springs earlier this week to discuss airfares.

Deputy Mayor Eli Melky said this was the first time in 14 years of being in local government that council was invited by the federal member to meet with Qantas representatives face to face.

The meeting also comes after Qantas chief executive officer Alan Joyce blamed Alice Springs’ recent crime wave for reduced capacity to the Red Centre.

Mayor Matt Paterson said one of the things discussed with Ms Scrymgour was a potential “rebound package” for Alice Springs, including the idea of creating an aviation fund to push for competition in the region.

In a meeting with Qantas, Alice Springs Town Council mayor Matt Paterson raised the “debilitating” cost of airfares, stating it “every fibre of the community in every possible way”. Picture: Emma Murray

“Aviation funds are prominent in Western Australia and Queensland, they’ve also got capped prices in and out of Perth to regional places, they’re capped and government covers the extra,” he said.

“But there’s an aviation fund which allows it to be a very competitive market.

“There’s $250m in the Western Australia Aviation fund and that’s something that we should definitely be talking about, and the Member for Lingiari wants to be at the table with Alice Springs Town Council and the Northern Territory government (talking about that).”

Mr Paterson said council should be considering asking for some of the contingency funds from the “$250m Alice Springs lifeline” to go towards creating some “jobs, and (helping) the economy and tourism in Central Australia”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the $250m fund in February, however a budget breakdown in May revealed $95m of it was being kept in a “contingency reserve”.

Deputy Mayor Eli Melky reignited calls for the council to form a regional alliance with other towns struggling with airfares.

“There’s no reason why not, I think we should be tapping in, if we come to the table with a plan and say this is what we want Alice Springs to look like then I think they will listen to us,” Mr Paterson said.

Mr Melky reignited calls for an alliance to be formed with other regional councils also suffering from a lack of airline options, labelling current airfares “debilitating” to “every fibre of the community in every possible way”.

“I think we should be able to get going with a plan where the mayor, on behalf of this council, can align with other regional areas around Australia,” he said.

“We need to somehow encourage competition, and one way to do that is leverage in strength and create buying power by joining in forces with other regional mayors and councils around Australia, and I think we’re perfectly poised for that right now.”

A Qantas spokesman said smaller tourism markets such as Alice Springs tended to have higher airfares than larger markets as operating costs needed to be spread across fewer passengers.

“Comparing airfares on routes of a similar distance is too simplistic and ignores the other variables such as market size, airport costs, seasonality and the ability to stimulate travel,” he said.

“Qantas has over 200,000 seats available for sale to and from Alice Springs until the end of the year, with fares starting at $209 to Adelaide and $269 to Melbourne or Sydney.

“Qantas also offers discounted fares for Alice Springs residents to both Darwin and Adelaide enabling local residents to travel for at least 20 per cent off.”