Canberra based Brindabella Airlines has commenced negotiations with the New South Wales government on possible subsidies to restore flights to Bourke, Walgett and Cobar.
According to ABC News, Brindabella is proposing to operate twice daily services to the towns, connecting them to services from Dubbo to Sydney, utilising a Cessna Caravan. The airline is understood to be in consultations with stakeholders in the towns to build support for the proposal, as well as financial support from the NSW government.
“What we’re looking at now is what sort of support the government could offer, whether it’s an underwriting or sharing the risk and we’re just doing our numbers and basically the government has said at this stage there’s no subsidy, there’s no underwriting, but we’re talking basically,” said CEO Jeff Boyd.
Boyd added that if approvals were granted, it is expected that the first services would take off in March or April 2010.
