With hopes that Warrnambool could soon be home to a new airline passenger service, there have been calls for a $10m upgrade of the runway so bigger airlines can bring tourists from Sydney.
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The busy airport will also see its new flight training school expand to include the ability to gain a commercial as well as a recreational pilot's licence.
Potential new air service
Warrnambool Airport advisory committee chairman Stephen Lucas said we could soon see a passenger flight service return to the Yarpturk facility with a potential operator flagging interest in the route.
Mr Lucas said an Essendon-based aviation company had signalled interest in operating an eight-seater Piper Chieftain from Melbourne to Warrnambool and Portland.
He said there had been a number of companies looking at the Warrnambool service since Sharp Aviation pulled the plug on its twice daily service to Essendon airport on June 30.
"There a few people around looking, this one's got the potential to actually operate," Mr Lucas said.
"There are always people looking at that aviation sphere. We'll just wait and see who pops their heads up but looks as though they might have a possibility.
"They are operating charters out of Essendon and they would look to come out of Portland and Warrnambool. It's a smaller aeroplane admittedly."
Sharp Aviation pulled the plug on its daily passenger service after a $300,000 support package from the state government and Glenelg and Warrnambool City councils in January failed to lift passenger numbers enough to guarantee its future.
The company said its passenger numbers were half what they were in early 2000 with just 8000 passengers each year using the service when Sharp Airlines restarted the daily service in 2015.
It said they needed 12,000 passengers a year just to break even.
$10m plan to lure tourist traffic
Warrnambool airport's runway needs a major upgrade to allow it to take larger aircraft with the potential for tourist flights from Sydney giving visitors easier access to the Great Ocean Road.
Mr Lucas said he would be lobbying the Federal Goverment for funding to upgrade the runway, which would cost about $10m.
"I think in the longer term, if there was strengthening and widening of the existing runway at Warrnambool, there's possibility for flights to be coming from Sydney for tourism to the Great Ocean Road," he said. "There needs to be some work done at the aerodrome."
If there was strengthening and widening of the existing runway at Warrnambool, there's possibility for flights to be coming from Sydney for tourism to the Great Ocean Road.
- Stephen Lucas
Without strengthening and extending the runway to 1600 metres, it would struggle to cope with regular use by larger aircraft such as those operated by Rex and Qantaslink.
Mr Lucas said he hoped money for a project like that could come from the Federal Government through its Regional Development Australia funding for infrastructure.
"It's critical infrastructure for this area, for tourism on the Great Ocean Road," he said. "A lot of the tourists that are going to the Great Ocean Road now are time poor."
Mr Lucas said tourists often flew into Sydney or Brisbane, visited the Great Barrier Reef, Opera House and Harbor Bridge, and then flew down to Melbourne to see the penguins and Great Ocean Road and then went home.
"They really don't have a lot of time, so any time-saving infrastructure is going to be a big boon for the Great Ocean Road," he said. "So from my perspective I see that as one of our future large dollar asks for the region from the Federal Government."
He said he would be talking to Member for Wannon Dan Tehan about the idea.
"Council needs to get on board with that, and that's something that the aviation community in Warrnambool will be flagging with council," Mr Lucas said.
Mr Tehan said he would support anything that improved the region's infrastructure.
"We would need to be able to put together a very good business case but I'm sure given the tourist numbers that are already coming to the region, and with Budj Bim being world heritage listed and future growth in tourism numbers, we'd be able to put a very good business case together," he said.
"With the $100m redevelopment of the Twelve Apostles, which the state government is about to embark on with Federal Government money, this type of thinking is exactly what the region needs."
Region's airport getting busier
Warrnambool's airport is a busy airspace with an average of 40 aircraft take-offs and landings a day and more than 15,000 a year.
Mr Lucas said with HEMS4 rescue helicopter operating out of the facility and the air ambulance using the airstrip between two to four times a day, the airport was busy. The HEMS4 has flown 2700 missions and helped 2300 patients over the past decade.
"A lot of people are transported by air out of here to hospitals in Melbourne," he said.
He said at the moment the crop duster was operating every day out of the airport, and there were student pilots regularly flying down from Melbourne.
There are also several tenants who operate corporate jets and turboprop aircraft including a Cessna 525, Embracer 300 and Beechcraft 200 out of the airport.
New flight school growing
A new flying school has stepped in to fill the gap left by the departure of the former service at Warrnambool's airport.
The Avalon Air Services operation has allowed the flying school to expand its operations into a new hangar with access to more planes.
Grade 1 flight instructor Janelle Martin said that as well as offering a recreational and a private pilot's licence, the flying school would now be able to offer training for a commercial pilot's licence and multi-engine training.
"That side will continue to grow," she said.
"We've got a bigger facility and access to more aircraft and Avalon is a bigger school.
"At the moment we do most of our training in the two-seater Cessna 150, now we've got access to a four-seater and we'll be moving towards the twin engine."
Ms Martin said it took about 30 hours of flying to achieve a recreational pilot's licence.
She said there was also a growing number of pilots doing their training at Moorabbin and Essendon airports who were using Warrnambool's airport.
"We're just the right distance for student pilots out of Moorabbin and Essendon. They often fly down on their solo navigations and refuel here and practice," she said.
Ms Martin said she decided to take up a career as a pilot after taking a scenic flight over the Great Barrier Reef when she was just a teenager.
Avalon Air Services flying school is operated by Queensland's Cameron Ross, with Ken Veal running the business side of things.
Aero club to get new home
The Warrnambool Aero Club will soon demolish its clubrooms at the airport to make way for a bigger facility.
The club - which is a group of aviation-minded individuals who either operate out of the airport, are pilots, students or are into aviation - has outgrown the facility which it has been using for the past 20 years.
"The aero club is looking to expand their home," club member and airport advisory committee chairman Stephen Lucas said.
The new enlarged clubrooms would be rebuilt in the same location and would replicate the airport terminal building.
Avalon Air Services flight instructor Janelle Martin said the club was looking to ramp up its activities in a bid to grow the club.
She said the club was hosting more flying competitions and trips.
The building is used for holding club meetings and safety seminars.
Works on the site are expected to begin sometime after October.
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