A $250,000 upgrade of the Warrnambool airport is on the city council's radar after applying for funding to seal a runway.
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While the wait is on to find out if the application has been successful, a Moyne councillor says even more needs to be spent on the facility in hope that an even bigger upgrade of the airport would help the region cash in on the tourism potential of the Great Ocean Road.
Warrnambool Airport Advisory committee chairman Stephen Lucas the council had plans to apply to the Federal Government which has a pool of cash set aside for councils who want to make safety improvements to its airports.
Mr Lucas said funding applications closed in December and the money would be used to seal the cross runway which was currently not sealed.
He said the whole project was expected to cost $250,000 and would not require any funding input from councils.
"It's just an improvement to the cross runway for aircraft here to land when there is a strong cross wind," he said.
In August last year, Mr Lucas said the airport's runway needed a $10 million upgrade to make it accessible to larger aircraft to cash in on the growing tourism market.
"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 at the time.
"The airport is vital transport infrastructure that enables economic activity the same as a port, a road or a railway," he said this week.
"It is also a hub for emergency services and an increasingly important link for tourism.
"There will be a time when the south-west of the state requires direct air links to interstate destinations and possibly international ones - Warrnambool has the opportunity to position itself as the logical hub."
Cr Jim Doukas this week renewed a call for a major overhaul of the airport.
"If they could upgrade the runway, that's the secret. It needs to be able to get 60-seater in here. That's the magic number," Cr Doukas said.
Earlier this year the councillor raised concerns that if there were a delay in transitioning the airport to a certified airport it could put the region's HEMS4 services at risk.
Under new rules, which were announced late last year by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority with aim to make all airports safer, Warrnambool airport's category as a registered airport would ceased to be a category.
Instead of allowing the airport to be downgraded to a non-certified airport, the council moved to ensure it would become a certified airport with all current conditions grandfathered.
Mr Lucas said all aircraft that were currently landing at the airport would now still able to do so.
He said if the council had decided to downgrade the airport from certified to non-certified it would have lost its instrument approach.
Cr Doukas said that as far as the Moyne Shire was concerned, it was fully behind the airport becoming a certified facility.
"We're looking for a brighter, bigger future and not going backwards," he said.
"If we didn't get certified, we'd lose what we've got now. It would just go back to an airfield."
He said with more gas exploration in the region on the horizon, he anticipated there would be more planes and helicopters wanting to use the facility.
"It's got to be up to standard," he said.
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