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Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer has declared the city won’t be deterred from pitching for new business and developing its airport despite missing out on a proposed Qantas academy.
The City of Whyalla was not included on a shortlist of regional cities to host the new Qantas Group Pilot Academy.
Whyalla was among a group of 60 cities nationwide that put in submissions to host the academy. The city lost out to larger cities such as Alice Springs, Bendigo, Launceston, Mackay and Toowoomba on the nine-airport shortlist.
Whyalla Mayor Lyn Breuer said the news was disappointing but the city was proud of the submission put forward to Qantas and stood by its claim to be the best venue for this academy.
“We have an exciting time ahead for the airport, and the city in general, and this academy would have been a perfect fit,” Mayor Breuer said.
“We already have Becker Helicopters coming here to set up a training base and Qantas could have reaped the benefits of this work we are doing at the airport and with TAFE and UniSA.
“This won’t deter us from continuing to chase business for our city and industries that are going to create jobs and add to the spectacular economic growth we are now seeing in the city.
“We are continually improving facilities in the city and that includes the airport.
“We have initiated several improvements at the airport already this year and have some more exciting projects in the pipeline in line with an ongoing master plan review.”
Qantas has flagged that it may still need need extra airports to come on board for its academy which will include training for foreign students on behalf of airlines overseas.
“We have the facilities, the potential and the desire to accommodate these sort of ventures and we won’t stop putting Whyalla forward as we look to create more jobs for Whyalla,” Mayor Breuer said.
The nine short-listed airports were Alice Aprings (NT), Bendigo (Victoria), Busselton (WA) Dubbo, Tamworth, Wagga Wagga (NSW), Launceston (Tasmania), Mackay, Toowoomba (Qld).