Maryborough and Hervey Bay have joined a growing list of south east Queensland aerodromes to waive landing fees for private aircraft. Justin Grey reports.
After mounting concerns about the impact landing fees were having to the growth potential of the local GA industry, a group of pilots and others with an interest in aviation from the Hervey Bay and Maryborough area formed the Fraser Coast Aviation Group to lobby the Fraser Coast Regional Council, which owns and operates both airports, on the issue.
Earlier this year Fraser Coast Regional Council announced plans to introduce landing fees for all aircraft using Maryborough or Hervey Bay aerodromes. The landing fees were intended to be charged not only for full stops but also for touch and goes and missed approaches that resulted in go-arounds.
However, after pressure from the Fraser Coast Aviation Group, the Council eventually backflipped and announced in late October that it wouldn’t charge landing fees for private aircraft with a MTOW of less than 2000kg. In doing so, Maryborough and Hervey Bay joined Redcliffe, Caboolture, Caloundra and Kingaroy aerodromes in not charging private pilots landing fees in most cases.
In lobbying the airport’s operator, the Fraser Coast Aviation Group pointed out, among other things, the minimal return from persuing landing fees from private aircraft and that fees are a disincentive for pilots to visit to the region.
Warwick Henry, Vice Chairman of the Fraser Coast Aviation Group, believes an “aviation friendly” attitude can encourage visitors and help both the local GA industry and the region in general grow.
“Putting landing fees on an aerodrome is like putting a toll on the main road into town, which is a disincentive to go into the town,” Henry explains. “That’s the angle we’ve pushed.
“Often when you’re planning to fly somewhere you glance in the ERSA or the AOPA aerodrome guide and see who charges landing fees and who doesn’t. If you’ve got a toss-up between two places, you tend to go to the place that doesn’t charge landing fees.”
By promoting free recreational use of the airports, the Fraser Coast Aviation Group hopes to attract pilots from across the country to the region, which in turn will help tourism and aviation businesses. To this end, the lobby group will also investigate further strategies, including hosting community aviation activities and events and encouraging the development of General Aviation businesses at the airports.
“The whole plan is just trying to make the place more aviation-friendly – to encourage visitors to come rather than discourage them from coming,” Henry added. “We’ve emphasised with the Council that everybody who comes in here spends more money than you’re going to gain or lose in charging a few dollars for landing fees.”
With a memorandum of understanding signed off on, the agreement on no landing fees at Maryborough and Hervey Bay is now said to be permanent. Landing fees for commercial users will depend on the weight of the aircraft.
While it’s no secret that the relationship between airport users and airport operators – for a number of well-documented issues – is generally a prickly one to put it mildly, the Fraser Coast Aviation Group’s success in wiping out landing fees at Maryborough and Hervey Bay is testament to the fact that aviation groups can work with airport operators to effect positive changes for aviation.
Maryborough Airport. (Warwick Henry)
