Mayors to look at Orange as a way to bolster Central West flights

Bathurst has been without regular public transport (RPT) flights to Sydney since July, 2023 after FlyPelican withdrew from the route.

They abandoned the route just nine months after commencing the service and about 12 months after the previous carrier, Regional Express Airlines (Rex), left the city.

Mayor Jess Jennings thinks it is unlikely that another airline will come forward to operate the Bathurst-Sydney route, meaning other options need to be explored to help people access air travel.

Among those is directing more people to Orange Regional Airport in an effort to create greater demand for flights.

Cr Jennings plans to meet with his counterparts from Orange and Blayney, likely on November 9, 2023, to have preliminary discussions about the future of air travel in the region.

"We've lost two regular transport providers flying from Bathurst to Sydney in 12 months and, you'd have to say, it doesn't look likely we'll be getting another one any time soon," he said.

"Under that circumstance, I'd actually like to see us join forces with Orange and probably Blayney as well, to enhance the Orange airport to cater for Bathurst and Blayney passengers, and use that increase in volume of passengers to leverage more flights."

Those flights, he said, wouldn't just be to Sydney, but rather direct services to other key cities, such as Canberra, Adelaide and Newcastle, as well as areas like the south coast of NSW.

"I think all that becomes possible if you can show to the airlines that there is a customer base there, all coming out of the one destination," Cr Jennings said.

While passengers would be directed to Orange Airport, he assures there would also be economic benefit in this idea for Bathurst.

"Orange would just be the conduit through which, if people want to come to Bathurst from Melbourne, from Brisbane, potentially from Adelaide, from Canberra, then they've got an easier way of getting to Bathurst," he said.

"I think there is a lot of economic benefit for us to get people to and from."

For funnelling more people into Orange airport to become a reality, it has to be an attractive, convenient and affordable option for travellers.

That's why Cr Jennings is thinking about ways to help people get from Bathurst to Orange and vice versa.

A shuttle is at the top of the list.

"I've checked the local taxi services and I think it's around $180 to get a trip out there, so no one is going to be doing that, and I tried to look at a quote for Uber and I think it was $100 or $120 on the day I checked, so people aren't going to be doing that either," Cr Jennings said.

"I think the best model I've seen, in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, for example, they have what they call 'transport on demand' services, which is a shuttle bus that acts like a taxi.

"You call it, there'd be a shuttle that's timed with each flight of significance, and this shuttle bus comes and picks up a few different people from different locations in the most efficient possible route and gets you to the airport on time.

"That actually could be a relatively cheap option for customers if they couldn't take their car or couldn't get dropped off by friends or family."

He would want a similar service in the region to be run by a private company but, if there is no interest from the private sector, then he thinks it should be a service subsidised by the state government.

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