Aviair Geraldton to Karratha route requires $320,000 a year for four years from City of Greater Geraldton

Geraldton ratepayers would have to invest a total of about $1.3 million to make the proposed Geraldton to Karratha flight route a reality. City of Greater Geraldton councillors last week voted 11 to 1 to include the funding required from the local government — a subsidy of $320,000 a year for four years — in its 2022-23 Budget. The State Government announced in its Budget last month it was allocating $4.1 million to expand the Inter-Regional Flight Network across the Mid West, Pilbara and Kimberley. But the expansion of regional airline Aviair’s network of routes and introduction of larger aircraft requires relevant local government to partially underwrite it. Mayor Shane Van Styn said the council would recoup some of the costs through rebates, including landing and passenger fees. “Ultimately at the four-year mark we would be hoping the subsidy to be breaking even with rebates, but it requires passenger loads to get up to a certain point,” he said. It’s understood airlines require 60 to 80 per cent capacity to break even on routes. Mr Van Styn said despite the significant financial investment required, council was supportive of the project because of the need to grow airport revenue. “We need to grow connectivity through the region, we need to increase competition at the airport, so it can open up other players into Geraldton due to it being a connected hub,” he said. “It’s (the Geraldton-Karratha route) not just about FIFO workers. There are more than just mine workers that avail themselves of jobs in Karratha, as well as Karratha residents coming down for holidays.” Mr Van Styn said the route would be reviewed every six months to ensure it was viable. Passenger numbers at Geraldton Airport have climbed back up to 90,000 a year, which Mr Van Styn said was seeing the airport break even and even making a small surplus. But it still has a way to go to reach pre-COVID levels of 120,000 passengers a year. “We’re hoping to see more flights brought on, we have Qantas that flies the route. People forget we have Rio Tinto and Virgin fly out of the airport and put on additional flights,” he said. “Council is in continuing talks with other regional airlines like Rex and Scoot and the like that are out there to work out where competition can prevail. With the regional airfare cap coming in from July 1, we wait to see how that impacts passenger numbers.” From next month, airfares between Perth and Geraldton will be capped at $199 one-way under a State-wide scheme to lower airfares. Mr Van Styn said the Aviair proposal should go ahead, but even if it did it would probably be a year’s wait “before we see planes moving.” He said a short-term focus for the council was boosting the number of services to Perth. At present, there are 12 services a week — which includes just one flight on Saturdays and Sundays — compared to the previous capacity of 17 a week. “We’d like to see that route back to its former capacity, we’d like to see that first,” Mr Van Styn said.