Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack has been urged to provide direct support to Australian airports at risk of going under, as industry leaders call for a national framework for border closures.
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National Cabinet on Friday will discuss the ongoing and growing impact of state border closures, especially on regional communities.
Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron made an impassioned plea for the states to "act collectively" in their response to the coronavirus.
He's been frustrated in his attempts to keep business going by different states closing borders suddenly as outbreaks occur, and the airport will be forced to shut this Saturday and next due to the lack of flights.
Mr Byron sees no way forward without a "national aviation strategy". He said they would monitor the situation at the airport on a daily basis until October 31 and then take stock.
If nothing is done, he said the airport and the industry was "facing the prospect of a nine-month shutdown".
Australian Airports Association chief executive James Goodwin said airports across the country were losing around $300 million per month in fixed costs, as state and national borders remained closed.
While the Morrison government has provided around $1.2 billion in waivers, subsidies and cash flow support to the aviation sector in general, Mr Goodwin said airports had "largely been reliant on a trickle down of indirect assistance".
He called on government to help cover the costs of services that had been mandated by the Commonwealth, like international security screening.
"It might surprise people to know that people are still travelling but in very low numbers and freight movements have been unaffected, freight still has to land to bring in essential equipment from overseas," Mr Goodwin said.
"Freight aircraft may only have two people on board but they still need to go through security screening and those costs are quite fixed."
Mr Goodwin also said the government had missed the opportunity to extend JobKeeper to employees of council-owned regional airports, who had been locked out of the wage subsidy program because they were employed by local government.
The association put a plan to Mr McCormack's office which would have cost $6.8 million over six months and covered 300 workers. It did not receive a reply.
Canberra Airport also wrote to Mr McCormack on Wednesday urging him to consider easing restrictions on the number of passengers airlines could carry per day.
Mr Byron said domestic airlines were only operating at a maximum 3 per capacity.
By comparison the construction industry in Victoria was being allowed to operate at 25 per cent capacity while the state was in a stage four lockdown. He categorised the restrictions on airlines as a "stage five lockdown".
"Interstate aviation has been in this level of shutdown since late March 2020 and after five months, it is time for this industry and the lives and livelihoods that depend upon it to be part of the gradual reopening of the economy," Mr Byron wrote.
"The key issue though is that interstate domestic aviation has no pathway and no prospect of being released from this stage five state of lockdown - even in Victoria and Melbourne, and out hearts go out to every one of those members of our community, there is a pathway, a pIan, a strategy and a process for moving from stage four to stage three and beyond to stage two.
"When it comes to interstate domestic aviation, there is no timeline and worse there is no known or agreed level of COVID-19 case numbers which would allow air travel across the state borders to resume. Aviation is too big a sector to be left behind and to remain shut down."
A spokesperson for Mr McCormack said the government was constantly reviewing its supports for the industry and "looks forward to discussing areas of potential longer-term reform with industry stakeholders in the near future".
Meanwhile a Senate inquiry examining the Morrison government's response to the coronavirus pandemic heard state border closures were threatening the recovery of the tourism sector.
Tourism & Transport Forum chief executive Margie Osmond said of the 700,000 people normally employed in the sector, only 230,000 were actually working at present.
The sector was suffering from a "confidence problem", she said, with seven in 10 Australians surveyed during the last school holidays planning on cancelling their travel plans.
Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said there needed to be country-wide principles set out by National Cabinet for border closures in order to restore confidence in the sector.
"Let's cut to the chase here, as a former senior executive in two airlines without a sustainable aviation sector we do not have a tourism industry," Mr Westaway said.
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Council of Small Business of Australia chief executive Peter Strong said there was no national advice saying any state border other than Victoria's should be closed.
Mr Strong also said it was an "absolute fallacy" that intrastate tourism could fill the void left by national and interstate tourists.
"There's just no way that their tourism sector is going to survive on intrastate activity alone," Mr Strong said.
"We have to be able to get to a point where interstate tourism is able to make up at least in part for what international tourism has taken out of the market."
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
