Leaked emails show no tower needed at Wellcamp Covid hub

Major carriers are happy to land international flights at Wellcamp Airport and contrary to earlier reports no $100 million air traffic control tower is needed.

The political squabble over the Wagner Corporations Covid quarantine hub continue.

EMAILS obtained by The Chronicle show two of the largest international airline operators do not have an issue with the air traffic and fire safety infrastructure at Wellcamp Airport.

This takes away key objection from the Federal Government in disregarding Wagner Corporation’s Covid quarantine hub plan.

On June 6, it was reported that the Federal Government had dismissed the Wellcamp proposal because the international airport did not have a dedicated air traffic control tower.

This came after informal talks between Qantas and Federal staff.

They also discussed concerns that insurance companies would not cover flights to the airport if it did not have a control tower.

It was suggested the Wagner Corporation’s proposal required construction of a tower, costing up to $100 million.

But emails from senior Cathay Pacific and Qantas executives tell a different story.

In an internal email, a senior Cathay Pacific executive said all the carrier needed to land Airbus A350 and Boeing 777 passenger aircraft at Wellcamp was an extra fire truck to be stationed on site.

This extra truck would move Wellcamp in the category nine level of Aviation Rescue Fire Fighting service.

“Operations of a limited nature would be possible with category seven. Operationally everything else is covered,” the executive said.

Emails from a senior Qantas executive were similar.

“Confirming for Boeing 787 charter operations into Wellcamp, there is no requirement for a control tower and no minimum ARFF requirements,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s office would not comment on the conversations between Qantas and the Federal Government because they were “informal”.

However, she said the issue of the control tower no longer mattered, as there were a range of flaws in the Wellcamp proposal and it did not meet the government’s Key Assessment Criteria for partnership.

Key among those criteria is that any future quarantine hub must be owned by the Federal Government.

The current Covid outbreak has renewed calls from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for the Wellcamp proposal to move forward.

During a fiery press conference on Wednesday, Ms Palaszczuk said there were three ways the Federal Government could help the states control the virus.

“We can lower the cap on the people coming in, make sure the people coming are vaccinated and to stop the lockdowns on the east coast, and have regional quarantine facilities,” she said.

“The facility in Toowoomba could have been built by now, and it’s not, now we have got to go through this rigmarole of looking for alternative sites.”