Dubbo Chamber of Commerce president Matt Wright does not view securing a multimillion-dollar Qantas pilot academy for the city as “make or break” but he commends a move to make a bid.
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Dubbo Regional Council this week voted to submit a business case to the airline for the establishment of a training facility at the city’s airport.
“I applaud council if they are willing to throw some resources at this to get a hat in the ring, but I don’t see that as a make or break if we don’t secure that,” Mr Wright said.
The leader of the peak body for the city’s businesses said with plenty happening at the airport site, he was not sure where the pilot academy would “fit”.
Mr Wright cited distance as a factor in Dubbo’s favour, but also anticipated there would be strong competition for the academy.
“There’s some significant developments happening at the airport as we speak, with the Royal Flying Doctors, with Rural Fire Service and even with the investment the council are already making with strengthening the runway,” he said.
“For one I’m not sure where we’d fit it, there’s a lot of development taking place out there.
“Secondly I would assume there are a lot of other regional locations that would be approaching this… they’d also have some pretty strong merits and strong credentials.
“Tamworth being one of those.
“We’re fortunate in our location basically being only an hour from four or five destinations on the east coast, to be able to fly straight into Dubbo.
“That certainly helps us.”
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Qantas announced plans to establish a pilot academy on Thursday and said it was likely to be placed near an existing airfield in regional Australia.
Since then, interest in securing the facility has been shown at Tamworth, with state MP Kevin Anderson and Tamworth mayor Col Murray contesting the city would be an ideal location.
Political and business leaders at Bathurst have also spruiked the advantages their city would provide.