Dubbo mayor Allan Smith and councillor Ben Shields think that efforts should be made to introduce interstate flights from Dubbo.

Cr Smith and Parkes MP Mark Coulton would like to see more flights from Dubbo to other NSW destinations as well, but all three leaders said the city should not get over-ambitious. The comments come as the Australian and International Pilots’ Association pushes for the federal and State governments to speed up the search for Sydney’s second airport.

Council airport working party chairman Cr Shields cautioning that Dubbo needed to “crawl before (it) walk(ed)”.

“Where we need to be headed is getting flights to the Gold Coast,” he said. “We need to talk to airlines about what we can do to get them to expand services in Dubbo.”

Cr Smith was similarly grounded.

“It’s very nice to be talking about international airports, (but) I don’t think we’ll see (one) in Dubbo in my lifetime,” he said.

“I think we should concentrate on more intrastate flights (rather than) just Sydney and more interstate services.”

He named the major cities of Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra from outside NSW as well as Newcastle within the State.

“That’s where the opportunity for employment and growth will come in the short and medium term in relation to air services.”

Cr Shields did not want to see Dubbo pursue jets and lose the current frequency of flights.

“At the moment we have a plane going to Sydney every couple of hours,” he said.