Dubbo will take its hopes of landing a Qantas regional pilot academy into the new year, with the airline confirming the process is “taking longer” than anticipated.
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The company had in September foreshadowed announcing the second site for its multimillion-dollar school for aviators by the end of the year.
Dubbo Regional Council’s bid is one of seven named on Qantas’s shortlist.
This week Qantas responded to the Daily Liberal’s request for an update on the project.
In September the company had announced Toowoomba as the first of two sites for its new pilot academy, set to open in mid-2019, a spokesperson said.
It was progressing a second location from a list of seven remaining shortlisted cities.
“This process is taking longer than we thought it would, and now hope to make an announcement on the academy’s second location in early 2019,” the spokesperson said.
On Tuesday Dubbo mayor Ben Shields said he had not “heard anything from Qantas” but was “excited to hear what the result would be”.
“...it is a matter solely for Qantas now to decide and I’m keen to give them as much time as they would like to come to that conclusion of where they would be,” he said.