Ended up costing something like this $50,000 per annum at Ayers Rock for the CAGRO - all added to the landing costs paid by the industry!
$50k per year for a CAGRS? That's cheap, particularly the cost spread across how many thousand pax? Imagine how much a TWR service would cost.
You're correct! Unicom is advisory only and the PIC is the go to person therefore no liability.
That is probably something that would need to be tested in court, in the event of a foul-up by a Unicom operator - and indeed CAGRO, as theirs is an advisory service also.
"Vicarious Liability" was something I read bandied about some time back.