Denise’s Desk: Why Flying to and from Tamworth and Armidale Is a Rip-Off

If you live in Tamworth or Armidale, you don’t need an economics degree to understand how broken regional air travel is. You just need to try booking a flight.

Recently, my daughter and her partner had to return to Tamworth for a funeral. There was no holiday planning, no flexibility, no luxury in the decision. It was a family obligation, undertaken at short notice – exactly the kind of travel regional people make all the time.

The cost? The best part of $1,000 to get home.

That wasn’t business class. It wasn’t long-haul. It wasn’t indulgent. It was a short regional flight, on a limited service, with no real competition – and a price tag that would shock most city travellers.

This is the lived reality for people in Tamworth and Armidale. Flying isn’t a convenience; it’s a penalty.

These routes are dominated by a single airline, limited schedules and virtually no competitive pressure. When demand spikes prices don’t just rise, they surge. Regional passengers are captive, and the market knows it.

The standard defence is familiar: regional routes are “thin”, costly and hard to service. That may be true. But it does not justify why flying a few hundred kilometres within NSW can cost more than flying interstate or even overseas. Nor does it excuse unreliable services, frequent cancellations and the complete absence of backup options.

Miss a flight from Tamworth or Armidale and you may not get another until the next day – yet you are still expected to pay a premium.

That is not a functioning market. It is market failure.

Even governments implicitly acknowledge this. When Rex collapsed, the Albanese Government rightly stepped in to save it – not because aviation is a nice-to-have, but because losing regional air services would have been catastrophic for communities like ours. That intervention mattered. It was the right decision. It recognised that regional aviation is essential infrastructure, not a luxury.

But here is the contradiction: if government accepts that these services are essential, why are regional passengers still being chronically overcharged? Bailing out an airline while allowing regional communities to be gouged exposes a policy gap that can no longer be ignored.

And this is where the excuses really fall apart. Because Australia is not breaking new ground here. Other countries solved this problem years ago.

Across Europe, governments designate regional routes as Public Service Obligations. That means routes must be operated, fares are capped, and minimum service levels are guaranteed – with governments underwriting the cost. In Scotland, France and Spain, regional communities are protected from being gouged simply because they live outside major cities.

In the United States, the federal government runs the Essential Air Service program. Small towns are guaranteed flights, airlines are paid to service them, and communities are not left stranded when routes become unprofitable.

Norway and Scandinavia go further again. Regional air routes are tendered like public utilities. Governments lock in maximum fares, service frequency and reliability. Regional aviation is treated the same way as ferries and roads – as national infrastructure.

In other words, the international response to regional aviation is not “too bad, that’s the market”. It is intervention, protection and fairness. Australia, by contrast, shrugs – then acts surprised when regional people feel forgotten.

The consequences are obvious in our own communities. Patients delay specialist appointments because the airfare alone is prohibitive. Businesses hesitate to expand. Families absorb huge costs quietly in moments of grief because there is no alternative.

In Tamworth and Armidale, air travel is not about convenience. It is about access – to healthcare, education, work and family. When that access is priced out of reach, regional people are effectively told their needs matter less.

If the Sydney – Melbourne corridor faced the same prices, cancellations and lack of competition, there would be outrage. Ministers would be summoned. Inquiries announced. Action demanded. But when the burden falls on regional communities, it is waved away as “the cost of distance”.

It isn’t. It’s a policy choice.

Rural and regional Australians contribute enormously to this country. Asking them to pay hundreds of dollars more simply to attend a funeral, see a doctor or stay connected to family is not just unfair – it is indefensible.

Living in Tamworth or Armidale should not come with a financial penalty attached.

And if countries with fewer resources, harsher geography and smaller populations can guarantee affordable regional air travel, then Australia’s failure to do so is not about complexity – it is about priority.

If governments are serious about regional Australia, fixing the rip-off in regional air travel must be part of that commitment – not an afterthought.

Denise McHugh is an experienced educator in Tamworth. She is Chair of the NSW ALP Education and Skills Committee and Deputy President of the Independent Education Union (IEU). 

Read more from Denise here

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