There are always arguments between Devonport & Burnie Wynyard Residents re their airports.
Devonport Airport has finally started charging customers for parking, going from $1 (didn't matter how many days or weeks)to $24 for a week.
Burnie / Wynyard are in the process of upgrading the parking & will also charge, it costs nothing to park their at the moment.
Personally at the moment I bypass Devonport & fly out of Launceston, I do like the idea of Burnie / Essendon
Regards R W
From today's Advocate Local Newspaper with some interesting comments.
Unity sought on airline need | The Advocate
NORTH-WEST councils must come together and form a regional approach to bring budget airlines to the Coast, according to Burnie alderman Ken Dorsey.
Alderman Dorsey will raise a motion at the Burnie City Council at next week's Tuesday meeting for Burnie to work with the Devonport City Council to attract budget airlines to Coastal airports.
All the motion is, is let's look at the possibilities of working with the councils and making something better for the Coast and that makes it better for Burnie," Alderman Dorsey said.
"I think if we work together with a regional approach, then we will have a much greater opportunity to get it [a budget airline] up here."
He said he did not mind whether the budget airline went to Burnie or Devonport airport and was just interested to "start working with people and let things happen".
Alderman Dorsey said he was a "firm believer" that as long as Coasters kept supporting Launceston or small airports that produced minimal numbers, then a budget airline would never come to the Coast.
He accused the Cradle Coast Authority of failing to give a regional approach on this issue.
The Cradle Coast Authority is embarking on an investigation into all access points to the North-West region, according to CCA chief executive officer Brett Smith.
"We've met with Tourism Tasmania and the Department of State Growth and we will be meeting with all various stakeholders as a part of the investigation," Mr Smith said.
"We want to work out how people are getting here and how we might improve that."The Devonport City Council passed a motion last month to remain committed to working with neighbouring councils, the state government and TasPorts to grow Devonport Airport's potential and attract a budget airline.
At the time Alderman Lynn Laycock said she had taken more phone calls from people wanting a budget airline in Devonport than on any other matter.Yesterday Alderman Laycock was open to the idea of the Burnie and Devonport councils joining forces but said Devonport had already began a "process" meeting with TasPorts and Tourism Tasmania.
"The process has started and we're waiting for more information to see if there is a need for a budget airline in the airport," she said.
She said the Devonport council needed to "let the process run its course".
"If we were to do anything different at the moment, we're only reinventing the wheel," Alderman Laycock said.
Burnie City Council general manager Andrew Wardlaw declined to comment.