Will Proserpine Airport survive?

Tried booking a flight with Jetstar from Proserpine to Sydney lately?

Go to Jetstar's website and request a flight from Whitsunday Coast Airport to Sydney.

First thing you will notice is that there are now two Whitsunday Coast Airports apparently - one at Airlie Beach, and the other (and original) at Proserpine.

If you click 'Whitsunday Coast - Airlie Beach', your journey starts at Abel Point where you are put on a Cruise Whitsundays ferry to Hamilton Island, and you catch your Jetstar flight from there.  The same goes for booking a flight to Melbourne. You do not use the Council managed / owned Proserpine airport but a privately owned one on the privately owned Hamilton Island.

You may notice that the ferry from Airlie Beach to Hamilton Island Airport even has its own Jetstar flight number.

What? There is a perfectly good airport at Proserpine, and about to get almost $6 million dollars in Queensland taxpayers money spent on it. Why are us mainlanders being 're-routed' from using Proserpine Airport to using Hamilton Island Airport instead?

Cruise Whitsunday is owned by Chris Jacobs and his partner. Chris Jacobs is the Chairman of Tourism Whitsundays.

If Proserpine Airport closes, it will be another major hit (so soon after most ferry services moved from Shute Harbour to Abel Point) to not only Whitsundays Transit, but the already struggling taxi drivers, shuttle bus drivers, airport service personnel, airport support companies, and especially the limousine company.

You have to wonder if the recent campaign (and government funds) to lobby for more flights servicing Proserpine by Tourism Whitsundays was just another failed lobbying exercise, or maybe it was meant to fail?

Sources:
Jetstar