Certainly sounds like a possibility.
Premier Bligh said the $13 million upgrade was set to position Mareeba Airport as a training hub for the Asia-Pacific region, providing world-class facilities and attracting a larger share of the $322 million local aviation sector.
“This is a key plank in the Mareeba Airport Development Plan which aims to attract more business by developing the facility as a high technology maintenance and specialist flight training centre,” Ms Bligh said.
That's from a council press release, and this is out of a Cairns Post article from the other day:
Yesterday, Tablelands Mayor Tom Gilmore said there had already been discussions with overseas flight training schools about the possibility of setting up operations to train commercial pilots at Mareeba.
Cr Gilmore said pilots would be trained up to Boeing 737 co-pilot standards.
"We are talking about a serious flight training school for international pilots," Cr Gilmore said.
It's certainly got the potential to go ahead, will be interesting to see how this develops.
Cheers