Bushy Bulldust.
Smaller Airports in Australia will always have difficulties in operating 'profitably' because of the low population base and getting to that critical mass required for profitability.
Why don't you apply the same criterion to any public facility Bushy like parks and sports facilities which only a small number of the population use?
The doctrine of 'user pays' is so much ideological crap in many areas of community 'good' and national infrastructure. This ideological claptrap is carried forward by Governments and others that sell off the peoples hard earn t assets to make their atrocious financial management look good on their 'cooked' balance sheets. The people that buy these assets (like Macquarie) then mercilessly screw the users so that they can pay the obscene renumeration packages they do, whilst the Governments sit back and wash their blood stained hands of all responsibility. These sort of economic rationalistic policies are ruining this country.
Go and get yourself a copy of 'ONE SIX RIGHT' and watch it 3 times a day before food until you are cured.
BP