Regional aviation will come back from the COVID-19 hit, it's just a matter of how long it takes, forecasts a key figure in an airline servicing Dubbo.
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Fly Corporate airline services manager Jeff Boyd said in the meantime the company just had to "operate as lean" as it could, so it was still in business when the market returned.
The city saw the number of flights plummet as the onset of the pandemic wreaked havoc on the industry nationwide.
Federal government assistance continues to cover operating shortfalls for a limited number of services on regional routes flown prior to the COVID-19 crisis.
Mr Boyd had confidence for demand in future, despite the current challenges.
"It will come back, people still need to see people, people still need to go back and visit businesses, they need to visit farms, we need to move workers around the countryside, we need to move health professionals around the countryside," he said.
"That can't happen on Zoom.
"You need to move people around the countryside to do that, and when it's safe to do so, people will come back to doing that."
He said hopefully a vaccine would be developed so life could go back to some sort of normality.
"But [the industry] will come back... so we just have to do our best, operate as lean as we can, be as efficient as we can so that we're still there and still in business to provide the service when the market's there."
Dubbo-based airline Air Link general manager Ron O'Brien said it was a tough industry, where margins were usually "pretty tight" so it didn't take much of a "hiccup to put stress" on any aviation company.
"Whether that's an airline business or a charter business or a maintenance business there's this flow we all need happening," he said.
"Not only within the industry itself, but the economy in general. So this COVID is the perfect example that generally aviation is canary to the economy, as a general rule.
"...So we rely on good government policy, to keep us all gainfully employed and operating businesses that can sustain themselves."
Mr O'Brien said there were a lot of unemployed aviation people at the moment, and the big airlines would have to recover. He said the situation gave "a good mirror to our business", which had been through the global financial crisis, changes in ownership and invested money into the company.
"And the fact we've still got through all of this COVID period, and we're still in pretty good shape, with funding assistance of course... We've got a position where we've got a good business, we've got a strong business, and we're looking at the future again, trying to consolidate what we do."