My Association was asked to provide information for the Parkes Airport proposal in the late 90s. I also was asked on behalf of a pilots association to present at the House of Reps enquiry into airfreight chaired by Mark Vaille.
We did a lot of research in Australia and overseas and while that was nearly 20 years ago I cant see that much has changed.
To give a reasonable price for exports the freight operator needs to get close to break even on the inbound leg. There are times when the export price is so high that this doesn't matter ie lobster tails for Chinese New Year but at the time that didn't come near balancing out the bad times. It appeared that if there wasn't a 52 week charter cycle then the rates for casual charter when the crop was in, was prohibitive. Remember we are talking a regular 110 tonnes here for a B747 freighter.
The US operators used to refer to it as the Golden Triangle. Break even from the US to Australia, loss to Asia and good profit from Asia to US with a full load of electronics and clothing. It was similar for other routes. This was the excuse that the Australian airlines used to lease in freighters from the likes of Evergreen. At that time Australia didn't have 5th freedom rights from Asia to the US. This later changed, but the US and other charter continued
For this airport to break even it needs services every week, not just when it suits the farmers/producers to export. The airport fixed costs are high unless the built structure has been covered by Government. The problem here is if the Government sees a need for subsidy, the next lot will sell it and the airport will fail unless its used for something else ie real estate.
Then there is the reality already referred to that most domestic freight goes in pax aircraft. While I can see that export freight such as fruit can be combined by road, this is not so easy for imports and especially packages which would normally be distributed around the Country via underbelly space. Do you really want to wait days for your ebay purchase to come via road?
If Parkes and Avalon haven't worked how this one will is an interesting question. Perhaps things have changed over the last 20 years but it seems to me watching the international freight terminal at Sydney that despite a huge change in overseas purchases, the ratio of inbound and domestic freight to pax freight has remained roughly static. The Feds to have this data if anyone is interested.
I think that the Mark Vaille House of Reps enquiry into export of primary produce by airfreight will also still be available for the Government. It makes interesting reading.
Wunwing