Murray Collings knows he’s got to win the hearts and minds of the shire’s residents if his airline is to succeed for the long term.
The CEO of Vincent Aviation, which was last week awarded an exclusive four year licence to operate the Narrabri to Sydney air route, visited Narrabri last Thursday to meet with residents and businesses.
He was in town to let people know that the airline wants to provide a stable service which meets the growing needs of the community.
“We’re here for the long term, we’re keen to support the community and get involved with community events,” Mr Collings said.
Vincent Aviation is currently providing weekday morning flights from both Sydney to Narrabri and Narrabri to Sydney, and Mr Collings wants people to know they can book with confidence.
“Come and experience the service we provide,” he said.
Vincent Aviation was initially granted an interim licence to operate the service after the collapse of Brindabella Airlines, the former Narrabri air route operator.
But last week Transport for NSW granted the airline the permanent contract, ensuring it has exclusive access to the Narrabri to Sydney route until at least 2018.
“We’re quite excited because we put a lot of work into getting the operation up and running and we’ve been certainly getting some good support from the local community,” Mr Collings said.
“So now we’ve got a secure position here we can concentrate on making it work.”
The Vincent Aviation boss, a former pilot himself, said he received plenty of feedback when he met with locals last week.
“Every person I’ve gone to see has said that they’ve been burnt by the previous operator and that it’s going to take a little bit of time for the community to get back on side,” he said.
“They’ve been without an air service for the last three months, they’re used to driving to Tamworth, so we need to change the psyche to fly out of Narrabri.
“We have to demonstrate that we’re reliable and we’re in for the long term.”
He said Vincent Aviation won’t be participating in a fare war with QantasLink, which flies out of Moree and Tamworth, but rather concentrate on providing a reliable, stable service.
“They [QantasLink] sometimes put out $69 fares from Tamworth, we just can’t compete with that, and don’t want to, we provide a good service, a reliable service, we have a $149 fare which I think is competitive and there is always some of those fares on every flight if you book early,” he said.
“We don’t want to get into a price war because we want to be here for the long term.”
The airline is already looking to expand its Narrabri service, with evening flights set to begin within the next few weeks on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.