Puece,
I couldn't agree with you more - makes a lot of commonsense to me. At Broome their are 2 CAGRO's providing services 7 days a week/ 11 hours a day. This is necessary at Broome because of the sheer volume of traffic. At some other airports it could be possible to have flexible hours dependant on traffic (RPT) movements further reducing costs.
The setup costs are minimal with modern technology these days and internet access. The main equipment required is 2 X vhf radios - 1 for CTAF freq and the other as a means of monitoring the adjoining freq in absence of coordination ( also as a backup ). A direct access to met - if met is on the airport via radio modem. And of course internet access for briefing/tafs/metars etc. Also flight strips and documents and thats about it.
As far as premises go, Wagga has a disused tower which has been used to provide CAGRO services for special events in the past - at no cost. Dubbo still has the old Flight service *tower* which would suffice there and is owned by council - again no cost. Ayers Rock have a pre-fab building, supplied again at minimal cost. Other airports might have similar facilities.
I strongly believe that the most efficient method of paying for the service is for the local councils to employ the staff and provide the service - after all they own the airports and facilities. This eliminates the contractor - middleman - further reduces costs and provides indemnity insurance. CAGRO's can also process the landing charges for the owner eliminating AVCHARGES. The council then charges a passenger head levy to cover the service- these already exist at many uncontrolled airports. At Wagga this would be under $1 per passenger - at Broome it is about 60c a passenger based on current RPT movements - surely not expensive for the level of safety it provides. This also means that pilots - RPT and GA - get the service for free as the RPT passengers pay for the service with no increase in landing fees. I can assure you it won't stop passengers flying to these destinations.
What is also required is for CASA to pressure councils to introduce the service when annual movements exceed a pre-determined level. These services have been operation at Ayers Rock and Broome for some 8 years now. Ayers Rock were made by CASA to introduce the service at the insistence of guess who ? Yes Dick Smith. The airport owner at Broome demanded that CASA legislate for the service there because of the increasing traffic volumes - unfortunately most other airport owners don't have this foresight or forward planning. Otherwise councils/airport owners will sit on their hands and do nothing - as they have done since the existence of CA/GRS - must we wait for an accident to happen involving an RPT at a regional aerodrome for councils/airport owners to be forced to introduce the service ? CAGRO'S could safely handle between 20,000 to 40,000 movements annually. Below which there may be a place for UNICOM - and after which an ATC tower may be required . Ballpark figures only . This plugs a huge gap that now exists in our ATS system and can be achieved at no cost to the industry.