Thursday, 7 June 2018
NORTHERN Tablelands MP Adam Marshall has welcomed a push by the NSW Government to provide support as an initiative for QANTAS to choose a country NSW location for the proposed pilot academy.
The MP confirmed the first step taken by QANTAS to identify a suitable location for the academy, its Request for Information (RFI) submission process, was closing today.
“This Australia-wide opportunity attracted a lot of attention and competition will be fierce,” Mr Marshall said.
“The process of pinning down that one or two towns or cities is well underway and QANTAS will be spoilt for choice.
“I have spoken to Moree Plains Shire, Glen Innes Severn and Armidale Regional Councils in the Northern Tablelands, which have all put forward impressive credentials in an effort to attract the 500-pilot facility to our region.
“I commend those councils for taking this tremendous opportunity in hand.”
Mr Marshall said it was pleasing the NSW Government was helping to give country NSW the very best chance to secure this major facility by assembling a team of experts to examine the information coming in from across the State.
“The advice from this group is that NSW does have regional airports likely to meet the specifications set down by QANTAS, including an ability to accommodate the short establishment timeframe,” he said.
“QANTAS will be continuing with this independent process of assessing the 27 bids from NSW and hundreds more from across Australia.
“The company will then publish a shortlist of locations from all the bids received and the NSW Government will get behind those locations shortlisted by QANTAS in NSW.
“The government wants this investment to be made in country NSW and will provide support to those locations and bidders shortlisted by QANTAS to maximise our chances.
“While ultimately this will be a commercial decision of the airline, I’m delighted the government will do everything it can to help the shortlisted bids.
“I am confident that every RFI submitted by councils will be fairly considered by QANTAS and with the NSW Government ready to support any successful application from within country NSW, it should be an irresistible combination.”