High airfares deter visitors to Queensland's outback as Qantas dominates Longreach-Brisbane route

For anyone travelling to Queensland's "capital of the outback", a flight could cost more than an interstate or overseas trip.

John Elliott was "staggered" to discover earlier this month that a return flight between Brisbane and Longreach would cost $1,386, even though he booked five days in advance.

The cost of the two-and-a-half-hour flight was equivalent to a last-minute Qantas flight to Auckland and only $450 less than a last-minute budget flight to Singapore.

"I think it stops a lot of people travelling. Basically, the only visitors that we get to western Queensland have to drive," Mr Elliott said.

Mr Elliott, who has formerly coordinated events in Winton, said he had seen expensive rural flights deter not just outback residents, but also potential holiday-makers and those bringing drawcard tourism events to the west.

He said "corporate Australia" was treating people in the bush "with a lack of respect".

"Whenever we had a big event, it was cheaper for us to charter an 80-seater jet and fly direct from Brisbane into Winton [than book a commercial flight]," he said.

"I just don't think Qantas are being fair dinkum at the moment."

Qantas is the only airline that services the route between Longreach and Brisbane.

Outback routes already subsidised

Of the more than 40 routes in regional Queensland, seven servicing 23 towns take airfare subsidies from the state government.

Maximum fares on these regulated routes are capped where demand is considered "too low" to be commercially viable.

Contracts currently held by Rex and Qantas are reviewed every five years, but the Department of Transport and Main Roads has delayed its decision by 12 months so it can "consider all the feedback" from 37 consultation sessions.

It's not the only review underway: the Australian Productivity Commission is also inquiring into the cost of regional airfares, with a draft report due in November.

In its submission, Qantas said Dash 8-400 planes were the "most suitable" aircraft to service smaller or remote regional routes because they had "lower maintenance and operating costs" than the smaller Q200 and Q300.

But the carrier said the aircraft, which carried fewer than half the passengers of a standard commercial jet, were not as profitable due to the "economy of scale".

"On average, these services are more than twice as expensive to operate than Qantas 737s and about three times more expensive than Jetstar and Qantas international services on a per-passenger basis," the submission said.

The airline has been contacted for comment.

Central Queensland University aviation expert Steve Leib said the fleet of smaller planes used on rural routes tended to be older and more expensive to operate.

"The costs just continue to creep up as aircraft age … and those smaller aircraft with fewer seats are in less of a position to help you recover the revenue associated with that [maintenance]," Dr Leib said.

Calls for airlines to 'justify' prices

Several councils in the south-west have been lobbying for a new contract with the government

Murweh Shire Mayor Shaun Radnedge said prices were not the only issue.

"We have had health services actually had to postpone what they had planned here in Charleville because they could not get a seat."

Cr Radnedge said now the region would be "in limbo" for another year, before they could bring in more flights and more affordable fares.

He said the state government had not consulted with his shire about delaying the review.

Now living in Toowoomba, Mr Elliott said governments should force carriers to prove whether remote flights really cost them as much as they claimed.

"I think the federal government need to say to Qantas, 'You need to be fair dinkum, you need to be transparent,'" he said.

"You need to justify how you can charge that much for a flight that really doesn't equate to anything their operation does [else]where in Australia."