Member for Bega and NSW Minister for Transport Andrew Constance announced Monday he will be signing the paperwork later this week to allow for more competition on the 35,000 passenger a year route. 

Mr Constance first expressed his intentions to deregulate the route in December 2015 and said he has been working hard for the past year to make it happen. 

“It’s important for people to understand in terms of deregulation, what it does is drive down the cost of business for the regional airlines, and often in reducing their red tape it should mean a flow on to customers,” Mr Constance said. 

“At the same time a bit of competition is a healthy thing and with the enormous opportunities out of Canberra’s international airlines, linkages in terms of regional air services will become increasingly of greater demand for our visitor economy as well.”

As part of his plans for regional airports Mr Constance is also calling on the federal government to amend the Sydney Airport Management Act to allow more regional flights into Kingsford Smith. 

“There is no reason why they can’t lift the cap to exclusively provide more slots for regional airlines. That enables the regional airlines to better use their existing fleet, it enables regional airlines to fly to better timetables and it doesn’t have any impact to any of those communities under flight paths,” he said.

Mr Constance said he has already met with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and is hoping to meet with Shadow Minister for Transport and  Infrastructure Anthony Albanese to ensure there is bipartisan support for his plan to see the cap lifted from 80 to 85.

“My message back to Canberra is we can’t wait, we need the slots now,” he said.

“With the state investing tens of millions of dollars in the infrastructure, reducing the cost of business with the deregulation that’s occurring across the state, Canberra needs to come to the party and open those opportunities.”

When questioned about whether there are any plans to allow for Canberra to Merimbula flights, Mr Constance remained positive.

“I’ve already had one local operator talk to me about flights to Canberra. Ultimately it will be up to the market to determine that, if the demand is there why wouldn’t you take a potentially 25 minute flight across the escarpment down to this beautiful part of the globe?” Mr Constance said.