What Qantas wants is still not known by Glen Innes Severn Council

The council advertised for “expressions of interest” in the national media and the deadline for groups to get in touch has now passed.

One company or consortium has expressed what is called “significant interest” – in other words, it’s offered enough detail and keenness to make the council believe its intentions and financial ability are credible.

Details are secret, as they always are in this kind of negotiation, but the council’s Director of Development, Graham Price, is now understood to be pursuing the matter and talking to the interested group which is not thought to be Qantas.

Qantas itself said earlier in the year that it was looking for a regional airport where it could site a new pilot academy but Qantas has yet to tell Glen Innes council what its specifications are. 

It’s not clear if this is because Glen Innes airport is not in the running and Qantas is dealing with other airports, or whether it’s not telling anyone at all what exactly its needs are.

One factor may be that the big new $20 million pilot school which Qantas has promised would need a few companies and organisations to also be involved, like a provider of teachers for pilots, and getting all this together is taking Qantas time.

Competition for the Qantas venture is stiff, with many regional airports across Australia putting their hands up. Just within this immediate region, Moree, Armidale and Tamworth are definitely interested. Tamworth already has the facilities for a pilot school because there’s been a military school there – it would be little more than putting new signs on doors, according to its supporters.

Glen Innes’ case is that all the legal work like planning permission has already been done for the Chinese plan which collapsed recently.

But would Qantas want a busier airport like Tamworth? Mayor Toms has argued that Glen Innes would be better because it has the essential facilities like a long runway but not so much traffic that pilot training flights would have to work around passenger ones.

And if pilots needed training at busier airports, Armidale, Tamworth and Inverell were near.