Narrabri has not had a regular Sydney air service since the end of May when Vincent Aviation collapsed, but Walgett Shire has been without an airline since December 2008.
A delegation from Walgett Shire Council was keen to talk to the visiting Virgin Australia executives in Narrabri on Tuesday to present a case for a Walgett linkage to a possible Narrabri air service.
Walgett mayor, Cr Bill Murray, and general manager, Mr Don Ramsland, held a meeting with Virgin Australia Regional Manager Alexandra O’Connell and Business Development Leader Andrew Best when the Virgin executives.
“We have proposed that a hub and spoke arrangement be put in place if Virgin begins regular passenger services to Narrabri” said Cr Murray.
“Virgin has some smaller aircraft, acquired when they bought Sky West, which we believe would be suitable to fly passengers from Walgett and Lightning Ridge, perhaps also including centres like Bourke and Brewarrina, to Narrabri to link up with a Virgin service to Sydney.”
The Walgett to Narrabri flight would be about 20 minutes and the other centres could be added to make a ‘milk run’ of stops en route.
Drawing passengers from the western centres would further build capacity for Virgin in and out of Narrabri.
The future of an air service appeared to be a regional model.
“We see the issue as a regional jigsaw” said Cr Murray.
“We have a lot of service providers, medical and legal for instance, who are currently making a three hour drive from Dubbo.
“There would be benefits to our communities in improving the range of these services if we had access to an air service.”