Dubbo City Regional Airport is a regional airport in

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Go ...

, Australia. The airport is located northwest of Dubbo and is operated by the

Dubbo City Council The City of Dubbo was a local government area in the Orana region of New South Wales, Australia. The former area is located adjacent to the Mitchell, Newell, and the Golden highways, the Main Western railway line, and the Macquarie River ...

. It is also known as Dubbo Airport or Dubbo City Airport.

History

Aeroplanes began landing in Dubbo in the 1920s, though it wasn't until 1935 that land was purchased for an official airport. During World War II, the airport was reconstructed to be a military airport. The airport runway was redone by the

Department of Civil Aviation A civil aviation authority (CAA) is a national or supranational statutory authority that oversees the regulation of civil aviation, including the maintenance of an aircraft register. Role Due to the inherent dangers in the use of flight vehicles, ...

in 1969, and a terminal was opened in 1970. The Dubbo City Council accepted ownership of the airport on 1 July 1970. The airport has been used for scheduled, charter, and freight services since then.

Facilities

The airport resides at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardis ...

. It has two

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

paved

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

s: 05/23 measuring and 11/29 measuring .

Airlines and destinations

Incidents

* At Dubbo Airport there is a concern of animal and bird strikes. There has been an accident near the airport in July 2009 where a small aerobatic plane crash landed in a paddock near the airport. * In April 2010, it was found that the PIN to access the secure areas of the airport such as the tarmac was taped to the gate above the keypad. This was deemed "not acceptable" by Federal Transport Minister

Anthony Albanese Anthony Norman Albanese ( or ; born 2 March 1963) is an Australian politician serving as the 31st and current prime minister of Australia since 2022. He has been leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) since 2019 and the member of parlia ...

. Despite this security breach, the airport managed to pass a security audit in 2009.

Controversy

In February 2013, Dubbo City Council (DCC) announced that it would screen all passengers and bags boarding Regional Express and QantasLink aircraft, after QantasLink announced it would introduce the Dash-8 Q400 to the route. DCC would also charge Regional Express (REX) more than $300,000 per year for the screening, which REX sees as subsidising QantasLink, after DCC claimed to the

Deputy Premier A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

Andrew Stoner Andrew John Stoner (born 14 January 1960), an Australian former politician, was a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly representing Oxley from 1999 state election to 2015. Stoner was the Leader of the New South Wales National P ...

, that it is required under the Air Transport Safety Regulations (ATSR) and that it is inflexible. REX hit back at the claims that screening was necessary, pointing out that

Albury Albury () is a major regional city in New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the Hume Highway and the northern side of the Murray River. Albury is the seat of local government for the council area which also bears the city's name – t ...

and

Wagga Wagga Wagga Wagga (; informally called Wagga) is a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Murrumbidgee River, with an urban population of more than 56,000 as of June 2018, Wagga Wagga is the state's ...

airports allow parallel departures under the ATSR and at

Mildura Mildura is a regional city in north-west Victoria, Australia. Located on the Victorian side of the Murray River, Mildura had a population of 34,565 in 2021. When nearby Wentworth, Irymple, Nichols Point and Merbein are included, the area h ...

, passengers are screened at no extra cost. REX lodged an official complaint against DCC with the

Australian Competition & Consumer Commission The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is the chief competition regulator of the Government of Australia, located within the Department of the Treasury. It was established in 1995 with the amalgamation of the Australian Trad ...

over the screening charge. The Mayor of Dubbo, Mathew Dickerson, stated that the council wouldn't back down on the screenings and also stating that ''"I don't want to be the mayor when a Dubbo plane hits the Harbour Bridge because passengers were not screened"''. REX announced that would refuse to pay any security screening costs and is planning to re-deploy aircraft used on the Dubbo–Sydney route. On 14 March 2013, REX announced that it could cut the weekly services, in response to DCC decision to charge for screening, on the Dubbo–Sydney route from 82 to 73 flights from April 2013 and re-deploying its Dubbo–Sydney aircraft for the Wagga Wagga to Sydney route.

Statistics

Dubbo Airport was ranked 34th in Australia for the number of

revenue passenger A passenger (also abbreviated as pax) is a person who travels in a vehicle, but does not bear any responsibility for the tasks required for that vehicle to arrive at its destination or otherwise operate the vehicle, and is not a steward. The ...

s served in

financial year A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...

2018–2019. Refers to "Regular Public Transport (RPT) operations only"

References

External links

Dubbo City Regional Airport
at Dubbo City Council site
Dubbo Aero Club

Images of airport terminal
at Australian Monitor site {{Airports in New South Wales Airports in New South Wales Dubbo Airports established in 1935 1935 establishments in Australia