RFDS South Eastern Section executive general manager of Aviation and Operations Mark Davey has released a statement assuring locals that it has no imminent plans to upgrade its fleet, and will continue to fly into small airstrips.
Concerns were raised in the community following a recent announcement from the NSW Regional Development Trust regarding rural and remote airstrip upgrades, with concerns that this choice was related to the RFDS upgrading its fleet to bigger planes that cannot land at small remote airports.
“We will continue to fly to and land on small airstrips across regional and remote NSW,” Mr Davey said.
“Our organisation exists to serve rural Australians, and we strive to maintain the high trust that rural communities place in us.
“As we know, rural and remote airports and airstrips represent critical infrastructure, and investment into regional airports will go a long way to future-proof these communities,” Mr Davey said.
“There has been some commentary about the upgrade package suggesting one of the reasons the upgrades are necessary is because the RFDS will be upgrading its fleet to different or larger aircraft.
“The RFDS operates two types of Beechcraft King Air aircraft, the B200 and the B350.
“The B350 is slightly larger and heavier and requires a longer landing strip. However, it is not the case that the RFDS is replacing the B200s with the B350s.
“On our analysis, our aircraft have at least another decade in them before potentially needing to be replaced”.
