YSWG - Wagga City Airport: Difference between revisions
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We had to wait until the up coming 2025-2026 financial year when the fees and charges were displayed for comment, and subsequently re-tabled at council, before we could speak against the proposals for the next financial year.<ref group="note">For the whole time that we could not object I voted with my feet and was refuelling at YTEM. A few of those planned flights in the Flight Aware data are mine and you can see a correlated reduction in planned flights to YSWG. I flew to YTEM some 110 times between 1-Jul-2024 and 30-Apr-2025. Obviously I was not the only person avoiding YSWG and using YTEM instead - there were quite a few others looking at the two graphs.</ref> | We had to wait until the up coming 2025-2026 financial year when the fees and charges were displayed for comment, and subsequently re-tabled at council, before we could speak against the proposals for the next financial year.<ref group="note">For the whole time that we could not object I voted with my feet and was refuelling at YTEM. A few of those planned flights in the Flight Aware data are mine and you can see a correlated reduction in planned flights to YSWG. I flew to YTEM some 110 times between 1-Jul-2024 and 30-Apr-2025. Obviously I was not the only person avoiding YSWG and using YTEM instead - there were quite a few others looking at the two graphs.</ref> | ||
The surreptitious nature of these changes, coupled with the lack of consultation with the Airport Advisory Committee, called into question the governance of the airport, and effectiveness of council to inform and maintain industry.<ref group="note">We can all see the stress on Aviation at YSWG with a flight school and maintenance organisation shuttered. AvGas fuel takings have also declined as a result of driving away aircraft from the surrounding region. Council could have come up with several | The surreptitious nature of these changes, coupled with the lack of consultation with the Airport Advisory Committee, called into question the governance of the airport, and effectiveness of council to inform and maintain industry.<ref group="note">We can all see the stress on Aviation at YSWG with a flight school and maintenance organisation shuttered. AvGas fuel takings have also declined as a result of driving away aircraft from the surrounding region. Council could have come up with several incentive schemes to entice GA back to the aerodrome. Let's hope the advisory committee is re-engaged and can help assist turning aviation around at YSWG.</ref> | ||
==2025-04-28 Wagga City Council public meeting: Airport Fees and Charges== | ==2025-04-28 Wagga City Council public meeting: Airport Fees and Charges== | ||
Revision as of 18:45, 14 May 2025
Annual Landing Permits
2024-2025 financial year
We discovered that the terms of the Aircraft Annual Landing permits[1] were allegedly surreptitiously changed to state that aircraft must be resident at YSWG, a change that excluded some Wagga City Aero Club member's aircraft, and other visiting aircraft from pre-purchasing the annual landing fee.
We also noted that the revenue for landings had decreased during that period because the main non-resident aircraft that used to use these permits were avoiding the airfield as a result. Some 4 or 5 aero club members being excluded by the change.
A seemingly insignificant change in terms of revenue that has far reaching flow-on consequences to the General Aviation community and generated further ill-will. As a very visible consequence of the rejection of some aircraft from the Annual Landing Permit and the zero landing fees and fuel costs at YTEM pilots have been flying to YTEM to refuel instead of to YSWG. A significant increase in flights at Temora can be seen on Flight Aware data, and a significant reduction of flights at YSWG.
We had to wait until the up coming 2025-2026 financial year when the fees and charges were displayed for comment, and subsequently re-tabled at council, before we could speak against the proposals for the next financial year.[note 2]
The surreptitious nature of these changes, coupled with the lack of consultation with the Airport Advisory Committee, called into question the governance of the airport, and effectiveness of council to inform and maintain industry.[note 3]
2025-04-28 Wagga City Council public meeting: Airport Fees and Charges
Some Members wrote to council against the fee changes during the public submission period.
One member: Mr Ralph Holland (self) flew to YSWG and spoke against the proposal to increase fees on the 28-May-2025 public session stating that the changes significantly affected his flying pattern and cost drivers saw him refuelling at YTEM instead.
Council deferred the vote on the proposal until the next public meeting to provide office staff time to table all public submissions to allow councillors to review all material so they can make an informed decision.
The Wagga City Aero Club then was able to provide two more speakers against the proposal and provide a contingent of members at the next public meeting as a show of strength.
2025-05-12 Wagga City Council public meeting: Airport Fees and Charges
Two more Wagga City Aero Club members spoke against the proposed fee changes on the 12-May-2025:
- Mr Jim Morgan, and
- Mr Geoff Breust
It was clear that the resident aircraft exclusion had dissuaded pilots from visiting and affected takings of fuel, and the case was also put that an increase of 8% was not inline with CPI, and that the advisory committee had not been informed or engaged when the fee structure was conceived in 2024. Again the advisory committee was not informed when the fees were next updated and proposed for 2025-2026.
Council addressed the Aero Club concerns putting a motion to constrain increases to 3%, to re-instate the Annual Landing Permit without a resident condition, and to review all airport fees subsequently [2].
Attention was also spent on the airport ownership, the lack of Department of Defence contribution to running costs, the airport lease expiring, and the lack of tenure - all of which affects airport and investment survivability.
However, there was no mention by the councillors of engaging the Airport Advisory Committee (as Mr Breust pointed out) - for if they had they could have addressed the fee issues up front and more effectively utilised officers and councillor's time - not to mention improve governance of the airport.
It is astounding that negotiations for lease renewal are up in the air too, with no clear support of the airport by either the State or the Commonwealth governments - leaving Wagga Wagga and YSWG in a nebulous and un-enviable situation.
History
We have removed YSWG from the Category:GA unfriendly airports in the interim - though we would also prefer to have the Airport Advisory Committee actively re-instated into the airport governance.
See:
- YSWG - Wagga City Airport (history) for the saga, and
- Alter charges and abolish Landing fees for light aircraft at regional Airports [3]
notes
- ↑ Note: these movements are only flights that have had a flight plan lodged with ATC. I lodge a flight plan and usually fly IFR so my flights are recorded and tracked.
- ↑ For the whole time that we could not object I voted with my feet and was refuelling at YTEM. A few of those planned flights in the Flight Aware data are mine and you can see a correlated reduction in planned flights to YSWG. I flew to YTEM some 110 times between 1-Jul-2024 and 30-Apr-2025. Obviously I was not the only person avoiding YSWG and using YTEM instead - there were quite a few others looking at the two graphs.
- ↑ We can all see the stress on Aviation at YSWG with a flight school and maintenance organisation shuttered. AvGas fuel takings have also declined as a result of driving away aircraft from the surrounding region. Council could have come up with several incentive schemes to entice GA back to the aerodrome. Let's hope the advisory committee is re-engaged and can help assist turning aviation around at YSWG.