Regional and remote communities across Australia risk losing critical aviation services without urgent political and policy action. That’s the warning from the peak body representing regional aviation, which says all parties and candidates at the 2025 federal election must give commitments to supporting aviation.
The Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) says without action on key issues now the future looks increasingly bleak for regional and remote aviation services. The RAAA is urging all parties and candidates to make commitments to key issues such as targeted economic support for aviation businesses, doing more to address skill shortages, removing unnecessary regulatory and cost burdens and avoiding one-size-fits-all government policies.
The RAAA’s CEO Rob Walker says on many regional airline routes businesses are not making a profit and where profits can be made, they are on average 7 percent or less. “Despite these challenges regional and remote aviation businesses are committed to their local communities and they will always do their best to keep flying,” Walker said. “But if regional and remote aviation is to stay in the air it needs support from new federal policies, targeted assistance and relief from bureaucratic burdens. The RAAA has issued a detailed policy platform that sets out the key issues that must be acted on now. We are calling on political parties and candidates to recognise regional and remote aviation as an industry of national significance and to commit to our policy plan.”
Walker says many people in aviation feel governments take aviation for granted and are slow to respond to issues until there is a full-blown crisis. “Taking aviation for granted will cost the national economy billions of dollars in lost regional business production and deny people who live outside the major cities the right to connect quickly and easily with family and friends. The people who run and work in regional and remote aviation businesses love what they do and are doing their utmost to support their communities – now they need the right support from government.”
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