Narrabri Shire is again without an air service following yesterday’s shock announcement that Vincent Aviation has gone into receivership.
All Narrabri Sydney flights were cancelled yesterday afternoon and it is ‘highly unlikely, they will resume in the short to medium term future’ according to the receivers.
Narrabri Shire mayor Cr Conrad Bolton said he was initiating urgent talks with council colleagues, Member for Barwon Mr Humphries and Transport for NSW to explore options for a replacement service.
“We don’t believe this is a reflection on the Narrabri route, which had numbers increasing on a monthly basis and customers were extremely pleased with the service” Cr Bolton said.
The receivers advised that ‘trading had ceased while an urgent assessment of the business and its operations was undertaken.’
Vincent Aviation had been operating the Narrabri service for just five months.
The cessation of Vincent Aviation flights to Narrabri came abruptly and with no warning.
Passengers arrived ready to check in at Narrabri and Sydney airports to learn they would not be flying.
There was no notification to passengers or to Narrabri airline agents Harvey World Travel.
“No one was informed directly of the termination of the flights” said Harvey World proprietor Jim Cable.
“We had no warning, no one told us anything” intending passenger Mrs Debbie Hatch said as she loaded her luggage back into her car at Narrabri airport terminal last night.
Ten passengers were booked from Narrabri, but word of mouth had reached some.
In Sydney 15 waiting passengers were told by an employee “not to shoot the messenger, but the flight is cancelled.”
Most secured a Qantas flight to Tamworth, but three were forced to spend the night in Sydney.
A Narrabri couple travelled to Sydney aboard the Vincent Aviation flight on Tuesday morning.
After hearing of the suspension of flights they reported they had looked at a flight from Sydney to Moree, two tickets for $1050 on Thursday night, or $550 to Tamworth plus a two hour car trip.
“I read The Courier Tweet on the flight cancellations, but I didn’t ring them because I knew they were having a special restaurant dinner that night and didn’t want to spoil it” their Narrabri friend told The Courier.
“They decided to book seats on the train and I suppose lots of people will be doing that now.”
The community could be forgiven for a sense of deja vu.
A corporate passenger was booked to fly to Sydney for a board meeting on Friday.
“This happened last time” he said. “I was also booked to go to a board meeting in Sydney the day the Brindabella service collapsed.”
It has been suggested that there had been financial ‘straws in the wind’ ahead of the announcement that the company was going into administration.
The implications of the halt to Vincent Aviation trading impact, not only on travellers, but to local businesses.
Narrabri business houses and Harvey World Travel are owed money, as with the Brindabella collapse.
“Harvey World Travel has again been left with money owing. Other businesses are similarly affected to a greater or lesser extent” said Mr Cable.