Cobar Shire Council is in talks with a number of airlines who have shown an interest in providing air services to Cobar.
The town has been without a regular air service since Rex Airlines announced last month that it would be withdrawing its Airlink
Cobar-Dubbo-Sydney service.
Rex made its last Regular Public Transport (RPT) flight out of Cobar on December 29 with just one passenger on board.
The airline attributed the withdrawal of the service to the end of their working arrangement with local stakeholders in Cobar.
Council’s general manager Peter Vlatko said he has been speaking with representatives from two other airlines, one of which offers RPT services out of Dubbo and the other offers charter flights.
He said both are interested in looking at offering flights to Cobar.
“From a customer service point of view it would be good if we could link into Dubbo,” Mr Vlatko said.
He said it was mooted that a Cobar to Sydney route could be offered, however that would mean landing in Bankstown.
Mr Vlatko said a Cobar to Dubbo service that would link in with existing RPT flights offered by Pelican, JetGo, QantasLink and REX out of Dubbo would be ideal. (Dubbo Airport has around 200 flights per week to Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Canberra, Newcastle and Broken Hill).
Mr Vlatko also said “the door to Rex is not closed completely”.
He said he will be talking to the local mine managers this week.
“We want to see what the mines are prepared to put on the table to make this an attractive offer,” Mr Vlatko said.
“We’re hoping the mines will be able to provide some sort of incentive that will allow locals to get on the planes.”
