Fresh plans for Wagga Airport upgrade in limbo amid lease uncertainty

With barely a year left until Wagga City Council's 30-year airport lease expires, the Commonwealth government has to date failed to provide clarity on the future of its management come mid-2025.

Despite the looming deadline, the council has just received a business case, commissioned last year, which looks at a series of major upgrades for the Wagga Airport.

Funded through the Regional NSW Business Case and Strategy Development Fund, the final business case was accepted by Wagga councillors when they met on Monday night and will now be submitted to Regional NSW.

On Tuesday, general manager Peter Thompson said the business case puts forward two key options to upgrade the important asset.

"The sorts of things in the business case document are the enlargement of the current terminal as a brownfield development, in comparison to building a new terminal as a greenfield development and the relative costings for both of those," he said.

Mr Thompson said the brownfield development on the current site was estimated to cost in the vicinity of $30 million, whereas a new greenfield site would cost more than $50 million.

He said the business case would also look at providing increased services at the airport, noting the existing terminal does not have enough space to conduct full-body screening.

"There is not enough space there to do that at the moment, but this business case provides for that," Mr Thompson said.

He said people in the community may not be aware that the Wagga Airport does not have a patient transfer facility.

"If you're in the unfortunate position of needing an air service to transport you to a place to obtain medical treatment you are pushed across the tarmac rather than having a dedicated facility to enter a plane," Mr Thompson said.

"This business case provides a solution to that and how much it will cost."

Mr Thompson said overall the business case was "quite a positive thing" for the Wagga Airport and the wider Riverina community who rely on its services.

However, he said there remained a "big dark cloud" looming over its future with the Commonwealth government yet to announce a decision on a future lease agreement with the council.

The GM said if the lease was renewed, the council would then need to secure funding for upgrading the terminal.

"We would be looking for a way of funding that, and we may have to do that ourselves with a passenger charge at the airport," he said.

Mr Thompson also ruled out any further efforts by council on the future of the airport at this point in time.

"We will be putting in no more effort on any capital works at the airport until we know the outcome of the Commonwealth's decision as to whether we are going to have a renewal of lease," he said.

"If that happens, we will talk not just about airport terminals but also things like runway lights, which are reaching the end of their lifespan. There are lots of capital works required out there, but we won't be doing any of them if we're not the next tenants."

It comes as Wagga councillors united behind mayor Dallas Tout to lobby the government to ensure the council will continue to manage the airport into the foreseeable future.

Mr Thompson said while the government has denied a decision has yet been reached on the future of Wagga Airport, he was quite sure it will be privatised.

"The only thing we've received in [no] uncertain terms is that they're making a decision to privatise the airport," Mr Thompson said.

"When we objected, they were quick to respond to that saying they haven't made a final decision, but that's the clear indication we've been given."

Addressing the white elephant of privatisation on Tuesday, Cr Tout said if that happens, the costs "will invariably increase".

"Ticket prices will then become unaffordable and it will become a business airport," he said.

He said privatisation could also affect the ability for health professionals to fly into the city.

"Their budgets are tight as well," Cr Tout said.

The mayor said if ticket prices rise too much, it could mean less health professionals come to Wagga and cost increases could impact other services.

"We've heard how at other privatised airports, general aviation ... gets shoved out ... and you're left with passenger flights and that's it - at extremely inflated prices," he said.

The mayor also cited the example of Coffs Harbour Airport, leased by the Coffs Harbour City Council to Palisade Investment Partners under a 50-year lease in 2021.

"The feedback from Coffs Harbour was since they have [privatised], they have already observed people are travelling from there to Port Macquarie to fly out of there [instead]," Cr Tout said.

He said the price difference made it affordable for people to drive the 150km journey and pay for parking rather than use their own airport.

As to when he believed a decision would be made on privatisation, Cr Tout said it was worrying nothing has been announced to date.

"My concern is procurement processes, even though they are transparent, take a long time," he said.

"With the federal government, they take a really long time.

"So, we have to have something in the next month to six weeks."