IF you are going to build an airport from scratch with your own hard-earned cash you'll need 200,000 passengers a year through your terminal just to break even.
That's the challenge facing John Wagner, the man behind the construction of Australia's newest airport at Wellcamp near Toowoomba, or Brisbane West as it will be marketed to the world when it opens to traffic in October.
As Mr Wagner told guests at the Rural Press Club late last month, his projections suggest the airport will see somewhere between 400 to 500,000 passengers in its first year of operation, returning a handsome return to the family that has funded the project (with help from the banks) from their fortune amassed in cement, steel and quarrying.
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Latest independent economic studies estimate that by 2019, the airport will generate more than $452 million worth of economic output each year. The boost to the local economy from the airport could create more than 3100 full time jobs across the region.
For a man who has built an empire on building materials since the mid 80s, it is a natural fit perhaps that he should be the driving force of the first 'greenfield' site airport built in Australia since Melbourne's Tullamarine in the 1960s.
This time, however, there's no government money, either state or Commonwealth, tied up in the project - another Australian first.
The lack of money coming from the national capital, he told guests, had been disappointing.
"There's no leadership in Canberra, on both sides," he said.
"It's disappointing that a hard-working, proactive family that wants to build wealth for the next generation has had to find our own money for the project when there was none to be found from our government."
The 2.87-kilometre long (45 metres wide) wide runway is being sealed this month. The runway is built on a rock base with an asphalt surface.
While Sydneysiders argued for decades over their second airport at Badgery's Creek, the team behind Wellcamp have quietly got on with the job to service primarily the people of Toowoomba, Australia's largest inland city second to Canberra and the surrounding catchment of 344,000 people, which doesn't include Brisbane or Ipswich.
"There is a huge opportunity to redirect both business and leisure travel to and from the western suburbs of Brisbane," Mr Wagner said.
With the second Toowoomba Range crossing project set to begin next year, it will mean that for many on Brisbane's west, Toowoomba in the future will be their closest travel hub.
There are 10 million tonnes of rock being used in the construction of the airport precinct and 200 people are currently involved in the construction of the airport. Airport management is in discussions with major Australian airlines to include the airport in their flight network.
South-east Queensland remains the only region in Australia with three commercial airports within a 150km radius - Coolangatta, Eagle Farm and Maroochydore.
Wellcamp will make it four, giving the region unprecedented access to Australia's and Asia's major destinations.
And with the capacity of the runway to accommodate a 747, direct passenger flights to overseas destinations are part of the overall plan.
Given the Darling Downs is the second most productive agricultural region in Australia behind Moree Plains, NSW, the benefits to agriculture of having direct airfreight lines into key export markets were obvious, Mr Wagner said.
Those destinations include New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, China and Japan - all premium customers of the region's products such as chilled beef, fruit and vegetables, flowers, live equine movement and machinery.
- Additional reporting: FarmOnline.