Shellharbour mayor Marianne Saliba is among a growing number of civic leaders around regional Australia who believes her town would be the perfect place for a Qantas pilot academy.
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Qantas announced last week that it would spend $20 million next year to set up its pilot school, and said it was searching for “an existing airfield in regional Australia to provide easy access to uncongested airspace”.
Upon hearing this news, Ms Saliba said she had added the pilot school to the agenda of an upcoming with Illawarra Parliamentary Secretary Gareth Ward.
“Qantas said they would be contacting state and federal governments to find the appropriate place… so I want to ask [Mr Ward’s] government, through the appropriate ministers to put forward a recommendation for the Illawarra,” Ms Saliba said.
“We think that our proximity to Sydney, the fact that we have an airport that is readily available for landing and the the fact that there’s land available around the airport all makes it a really good choice.”
Cr Saliba also said the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, which has strong links with Qantas planes situated at the aircraft, would provide a wealth of corporate knowledge for an academy.
“We think this would just be a natural arrangement,” she said.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said the academy would become a critical part of the airline’s “talent pipeline” – and an important resource for Australian aviation.
“Boeing estimates the world will need about 640,000 more pilots in the next 20 years, with 40 per cent in the Asia Pacific region,” he said.
"We are looking to each of the states and territories, not only on what incentive packages they typically provide to other companies and other industries doing similar things that would be available to the Qantas group, but what facilities they may have already because we will obviously need a functional regional airport."
Just days after Qantas’ announcement, other regional cities are already vying to attract attention from the airline.
For instance, federal MP Sussan Ley and entrepreneur Dick Smith have backed Albury as the ideal location.
Mayor of the border city Kevin Mack said his council had already been in touch with Qantas to discuss the potential of the airline developing a pilot training academy in Albury, while Ms Ley said she would be “doing everything I can to put a border bid in front of (chairman) Alan Joyce and the decision makers on this one.”
Community leaders in Queenslands Bundaberg and Cairns, and Dubbo, in western NSW, have also described their towns as “ideally situated” for the school.