Latrobe City Council will seek to expand development opportunities at Latrobe Regional Airport.
At the 5 July Council Meeting, Council adopted a key strategic document that sets out a long-term framework for development of the airport, which Council owns.
The Airport Development Plan considers new airport precincts, development opportunities and sets the requirements for future funding, government support and the timeline for aviation infrastructure upgrades.
The Plan is supported by the Latrobe Regional Airport Board.
Latrobe City Council Mayor, Cr Sharon Gibson said the Airport has the potential to offer many opportunities for the municipality and broader Gippsland.
“We have the potential to expand the existing services at the Airport and also attract new services that could in turn result in additional spin-off services,” she said.
The next steps are to undertake detailed feasibility studies, further define how the precincts will be developed and engage with potential tenants to negotiate development opportunities.
The Plan allocates land for possible passenger services, flight training, tourism-related development, private hangars and significant areas for the basing of emergency services. The Plan sets out precincts for aircraft maintenance and repairs, to attract businesses to relocate or expand at the airport.
The Plan also enables focus areas for new technologies, such as aerial drone development for agricultural and mining uses.
“By adopting this plan, Council is providing a direction for the airport precinct to look to the future; to create new industry and new jobs for our community,” Cr Gibson said.
The Plan will enable the roll-out of development and highlight the opportunity for Council to plan infrastructure spend to align with new development precincts and the immediately developable land that has been identified in the Plan.
“A thriving aviation precinct has the potential to create large numbers of skilled jobs for the region and bring significant investment by way of construction, new aircraft, aviation jobs in maintenance and licensed aircraft maintenance engineers, non-aviation jobs, tourism, freight and recreational flying,” Cr Gibson said.
“We see opportunities for greater collaboration with tertiary and higher educational institutions, and want to attract new and emerging industries to the airport while supporting and growing the general aviation operations.”
Council has recently upgraded the airport terminal, with further works to improve the site presentation over the next three to six months.
