For many years aviation operators have been encouraged by council to choose Lismore Airport as a base for their businesses in providing flight training, medical flights, charters and freight.

With over 400 civilian airports in Australia, most of them regional, councils must keep these economic arteries open, especially in covid times.

Lismore aviation operators are infuriated that council have adopted amendments to change the landing fee structure for local and visiting aircraft at Lismore airport that will make staying in Lismore untenable. 

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Owner/Director, Chief Pilot (Charter & Aerial Work), Head of Operations (Flight Training), Flight Examiner, and Designated Aviation Medical Examiner Izaac Flanagan said in 2016 he set up his company with the support of the council that were ‘pretty keen’ to have them there.

“We appreciated the support they gave us and we knew the structure of the landing fees along with the operational costs here at Lismore.

“We were happy with it so we set up here.”

But in May this year Mr Flanagan received an email from council notifying him of a change in the landing fee structure that would start on 1 July.

“They gave us only six weeks’ notice.

“For our aeroplanes we pay a yearly fee to access the runway, and that was around $700-$800 a year for each aeroplane with unlimited landings.

“This is a very common arrangement; Ballina has that, Casino has that, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, Warrick, it’s there to attract business.”

In an ABC breakfast interview, acting manager for commercial services Ashley Wing defended councils decision citing they had done ‘some’ modelling based on previous usage rates and historical data.

He also told Mr Flanagan that the fee change was due to a council deficit, yet on ABC radio said the change was ‘best practise’. 

“For the vast majority of the small commercial and private use operators the bottom dollar fee increase in costs is in the order of a couple of hundred dollars a year.”

A council spokesperson added that in this year’s budget, council adopted a new fee structure based on best practice and industry norms for Lismore Regional Airport.

“To ensure greater equity for all airport users, council replaced the annualised fee, which in practice operated as subsidy to the commercial aviation operators, with a pay-per-use fee.

Under the annualised fee, a person who used the airport twice a year paid the same amount as someone who used it a hundred times a year. 

“Under the new fee structure, the more you use the airport, the more you pay.”

Fellow aviator Noel Hoy said council had changed the methodology without consultation. 

“What they’ve done is scrap the current fee structure which had the annual unlimited landing fee for local companies and have decided to charge all the planes the same.

“Izaac put in a seven-page submission to the motion from Lismore council and based on the words from the acting manager commercial services, he hasn’t even read it, or not understood it.

“Right now, the motion back in June is still standing and there is no sign of rescinding it.”

Mr Flanagan has set up a petition to demand council rescind the increase, it has over 850 signatures so far.

“Landing fees for our two Beechcraft Baron aircraft at Lismore Airport will increase from around $1200-1400 per year, to around $30,000-$40,000 per year,” he said.

“This is based on:

• An average of four training flights per day for 330 days per year, with a landing fee per full stop landing of around $30

• 4 full stop landings x $30 x 300 days = $36,000

“This doesn’t include the touch and go landings we perform, which will only add further to this cost.

“This is an increase in landing fee costs of around 3000%, or around 30 times greater year on year.”

"We were going to hire another pilot but we've had to put that on hold." - Izaac Flanagan

Acting manager commercial services told ABC breakfast that those figures are ‘his’ and not councils. When the Lismore App sought verification council denied comment. 

Executive Chairman and founder of Airways Aviation, Romy Hawatt told the Lismore App with pressures on aviation education in general, is an increase in landing fees smart or justifiable.

“Especially if the Council are sincere in attracting and growing commercial activity in Lismore generally and not just at the airport.

“We believe in Lismore and understand that both domestic and international students bring a special vibrancy along with solid economic benefits to the locals providing goods and services.

“We are both an education and training business supplier as well as a consumer looking to put down long term roots in that will benefit Lismore.

“Everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too’ – as the old saying goes but it is also a commercial reality that businesses like ours would need to pass increases imposed by council on to the students and this naturally will bite into our competitiveness and make it more difficult to promote Lismore as the best place in Australia to learn to fly.

“I hope the Council choose wisely when they weigh up the qualitative versus quantitative benefits of their decisions,” Mr Hawatt said. 

State Member for Lismore Janelle Saffin said she had been briefed by Mr Flanagan about his concerns and immediately made representations on his behalf to Lismore City Council General Manager Michael Donnelly and his senior management team.

“When a local businessman tells me that a council fee hike might mean that he has to relocate to another area, I take that very seriously because I don’t want any local business, and the local jobs they support, leaving Lismore,” Ms Saffin said.

“I also hope that Mr Donnelly and remaining serving councillors can broker a solution to keep Airways Aviation here at Lismore Airport too.”

Mr Gibson who owns hangars at the airport said the issue at the moment is landing fees. 

“But what I’m asking is ‘What’s going to be the consequences of that?’ 

“In our hangar at the moment if they leave, we lose out as well.

“It can be related to other businesses out here… the aero club has been here for over 50 years.

“It’s not very good business practice. 

“They’re all paying rates too and it seems to be not just the landing fee issue, it’s the consequence, if the fuel people aren’t getting sales what happens to them?” 

Aviators say that council needs an external aviation expert to advise them on effective management of such an important asset.

“Individual councillors are having a hard time understanding the details but that’s not their fault because they’ve been misled by management,” Mr Hoy said.

“Most councils are encouraging business at their local airports, that’s where the basis for an annual rate comes from.

“In my experience council don’t have much experience with airports and usually have an advisor sit on council meetings and committees – Lismore used to have one around 15 years ago so there have been no external inputs since.

“If you don’t get expert input you’ll get blunder after blunder after blunder.”