Australia's regional airports 'unviable' without Federal budget aid; three examples. Part one

According to Regional Capitals Australia (RCA), which advocates for regional capital cities "to have a clear and central role in national policy", the country's airports need urgent (unspecified) financial support from the Federal government in the forthcoming budget or they will become "unviable".

There are many Australian airports - 630 of them - and although some have been privatised by way of lease for 25 years now, and others are grass strips to enable the Flying Doctors to do their rounds, a couple of hundred remain under local council control.

These airports are critical gateways for industry and commerce in towns of widely varying economic constitution, often in the absence of realistic alternative travel modes in one of the largest countries in the world.

The report, in two parts, examines the RCA's claims and then looks at three airports across the country where air travel is crucial to the local economy and why.