Andrew Barr has conceded the ACT government's long running efforts to land international flights for Canberra could so far be limited to raising awareness of the city and region's tourism potential.
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Mr Barr met NSW Premier Mike Baird on Thursday, pitching the potential of direct international flights as an opportunity for Canberra region towns as well as the capital's tourism providers.
The meeting came after he told a Legislative Assembly committee this week that any moves to schedule flights to Canberra from south-east Asia or New Zealand would ultimately come down to the potential for airlines to make money from new tickets.
Positive meetings with Virgin Australia chief executive John Borghetti and Qantas ACT regional general manager Allan Williams have continued and Mr Barr said he had spruiked Canberra to airlines including Cathay Pacific, Singapore, Air New Zealand, China Southern as well as some low-cost or alliance partners.
"We continue to actively engage with the aviation industry, across the spectrum of players from regional through to national and international players," Mr Barr told the Public Accounts committee on Tuesday.
"I think it is fair to say our city would benefit, in the tourism context, from a low-cost carrier, or more than one, operating flights to and from Canberra.
"Ultimately though, these are decisions that are commercial in nature for the airline industry. What I can repeat is that these efforts are always to ensure that in terms of future route development, Canberra is being assessed and that we are giving ourselves the best possible opportunity to succeed."
So far no carriers have joined the government's $1.1 million co-operative airline stimulus fund, designed to pay for international and domestic marketing campaigns to attract leisure passengers to Canberra, to match expected business class ticket sales associated with the federal government and Parliament.
If direct international flights are secured, government-commissioned research showed daily services from Singapore or New Zealand could generate $139 million in annual benefits for the Canberra region and more than 1000 jobs. Economic analysis of Canberra's tourism catchment had been given to airlines to show off the potential of the 900,000 people who live in the city and towns within two hours drive.
Mr Barr said the government believed there were strong economic opportunities for the NSW government in the plan, and cross border co-operation was ongoing.
Most of the work remained commercial-in-confidence because it related to specific proposals to individual airlines. Mr Barr said the companies were "very secretive about relative seat loadings and the like and certainly don't like that information publicly shared".
"It is not within my personal control to have commercial decisions that are made by the airlines, but certainly they are much more familiar with Canberra as a result of our collective efforts," he said.
"If we aren't out there, spruiking the business benefits and tourism benefits and economic opportunities that come from these transport links, then we will be no closer to achieving them."
Previously the government has used trade delegations and bilateral trips to Singapore, China and New Zealand to talk up the national capital as a political, tourism and business destination for overseas travellers.
The government has previously suggested the feasibility of international flights to Canberra and the region is comparable with Adelaide, which has a population of 1.2 million and about 30 direct international flights each week.
