FLIGHTS in and out of Dubbo airport would be shut down for the better part of two days while the main runway is upgraded.
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The runway will be resurfaced as part of a $500,000 project to take place later this month, according to Dubbo City Regional Airport operations manager Lindsay Mason.
"We're re-surfacing the main runway with a single-coat bitumen seal," he said.
"It's the first time we've re-sealed it in about 20 years."
Mr Mason nipped in the bud speculation the runway upgrade might be part of a secret plan to accommodate larger aircraft operated by a new carrier.
"It's purely routine maintenance," he said.
"To accommodate larger planes, to get more strength, we'd have to go with asphalt and it would cost a lot more money, like $8 million bucks."
Most of the work would be done on the weekend of Saturday, January 17 and Sunday, January 18.
"However we will be shutting off part of the runway to do some work on Friday the 16th," Mr Mason said.
He said the airport had been working with passenger airlines Regional Express (Rex) and QantasLink to make arrangements given that the airport would be closed from 7.30am on the Saturday morning to 6pm on the Sunday.
"We will be needing every bit of that time," Mr Mason said.
He said the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) and NSW Ambulance would operate from Narromine that weekend.
"The only aircraft we'll be letting in, if there's an emergency, is the NSW Ambulance helicopter, they'll be able to park out the front here because there will be no aircraft," he said.
The upgrade was being carried out by Dubbo City Council's works and services department, who had engaged the assistance of sub-contractor Fulton Hogan.
"They do all our road pavement works, and in this case airport pavements are a little bit special because we can't have any loose stones," he said.
There would be nine rollers on the job "working flat out, no pun intended" to push loose stones into the bitumen once the sealing had taken place, Mr Mason said.
"Come Sunday night, we'll do a sweep over it," he said.
"You can't use actual street sweepers, you have to use a vacuum sweeper because fresh bitumen will get chopped up by the sweeper."
The project had been funded by the airport itself, Mr Mason said.
"All our expenditure here is, we don't rely on ratepayers' money, often people don't realise we're self-sufficient," he said.
