Wade Mahlo, who runs Wade Air from the airport, met with mayor Reg Kidd and deputy Joanne McRae on Tuesday, with the council to write to Qantas expressing its interest and ask for more information on Qantas’s needs.

The airline is expected to invest up to $20 million in a Qantas Group Pilot Academy near an existing airfield in regional Australia, where students would be able to train in uncongested airspace. 

The facility would start operations in 2019 and train up to 500 pilots a year. 

Mr Mahlo said the airport and runways in Orange were both of high quality.

“It’s also got a good climate,” he said.

“A lot of places like Wagga are too hot in the summertime – Wagga has a couple of weeks of [40 degrees Celsius] and that’s not conducive to pilot training.”

Mr Mahlo said talk in the industry indicated the airline was already considering Orange.

He believed the region’s cultural scene and economy was also in its favour – his business has recently secured a contract with World Fuel, which purchased Mobil, for jet fuel supply to the airport.

The fuel giant has invested $400,000 in a 55,000-litre tank, a bowser and a truck.

“We’ve got the Brisbane route now and they see it as a big growth area,” he said. 

“If they’re putting 100 pilots through at a time, it would give us great status.”

The airport is one of several interested in hosting the facility, including Bathurst, Dubbo, Albion Park, Albury, Wagga Wagga, Tamworth and even the Northern Territory.

Bathurst City Council based its argument on its airport’s three existing independent flying schools and the presence of the Australian Air Force Cadets, which runs its National Aviation Centre program from the facility.

Meanwhile, Dubbo hedged its bets on its extra airstrips at Narromine and Bodangora, near Wellington.