Queensland’s Darling Downs food bowl region is expected to witness an export boom, with Cathay Pacific announcing weekly cargo flights from Toowoomba to Hong Kong. The service out of Wellcamp Airport begins next month and will be the only cargo-dedicated international weekly freighter airfcraft schedule out of Southeast Queensland (and that includes Brisbane). The 747-J8F will take off from Sydney, land in Melbourne then make a final stop at Wellcamp before taking on the nine hour journey to Hong Kong. Darlings Downs fruit and vegetables will now be available to Hong Kong consumers a day after picking, while the region’s fresh chilled beef will be on restaurant tables 24 hours after it leaves the Toowoomba tarmac.
Wellcamp Airport, located on the outskirts of Toowoomba, is owned and operated by the well-known Wagner family and is Australia’s first privately built public airport. Since commencing in 2014 it has established 72 domestic regular passenger transport services weekly, with return routes available to Cairns and Melbourne through Airnorth, which uses a code sharing agreement with Qantas.
Wellcamp Airport is also set to stage a landmark Qantas charter flight to Shanghai in a bid to draw closer trade ties with the Asian powerhouse. Expected to take off this month, it will be carrying an Australian delegation of business people and industry leaders as part of a push to develop stronger trade links with the manufacturing giant. Toowoomba Surat Basin Enterprise CEO Dr Ben Lyons, who has helped spearhead the initiative, has been integral in leading the charge to attract Chinese business back to the Darling Downs region. TBSE has based its own fulltime employee in Shanghai to develop links and opportunities for companies from Toowoomba and the Darling and Western Downs right through to the Burnett region.
