The collapse of the plan to create an international flight school for trainee pilots has raised questions over the future of Glen Innes airport.
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A former flight instructor who operated from the airport said he was concerned that the cost to the council of maintaining the facility nine kilometers from Glen Innes in a viable condition would now prove too much and it could “walk away”.
“There’s only so long we can expert the council to fund the airport,” said James Gresham, now a local farmer but a pilot instructor in the past. “Our concern is that they’ll pull the plug and walk away from it”.
“The only way we’ll keep the airport is to find a use for it”, he added.
The airport (formally designated GLI under the internationally recognized coding for airports) is of a high standard with a single, high-quality runway long enough to take all but the biggest passenger jets.
It is currently used by a commercial company which sprays crops and, occasionally, for small freight planes. Leisure pilots also fly from it.
But the big hope was a project to build a 600 place flight school primarily for pilots from Chinese commercial airlines. Just before Christmas, the Australian businessmen behind the venture pulled out.
Mr Gresham does not blame the council for the failure of the project. He says that there remains a market for flight schools. The Chinese economy grows and grows and air travel both within China and on Chinese airlines internationally is creating huge demand for pilots fluent in Chinese and English.
The question is whether to maintain the airport at its current high standard in the hope that some other project materialises.
The council had put in sewage and water supplies (though paid for by the federal and NSW governments). But those pipes will either have to be maintained or allowed to fall into disuse.
The cost of maintenance could be substantial.
