Regional airline Rex has sensationally accused Dubbo Regional Council of corruption, saying it is lying to the public about the true cost of its Dubbo to Sydney route.
On Wednesday, every household in Dubbo received a letter signed by the airline's executive chairman Lim Kim Hai.
The document, sent to about 16,000 dwellings, labelled Dubbo Regional Council's moves to increase airport taxes as "deceitful, immoral and harmful".
Mr Hai said the council was "ripping off" the community in western New South Wales by more than $3 million a year.
"The [Dubbo Regional Council] is either very corrupt or very incompetent (or else it is simply lying) when it claims that its astronomical airport charges are simply on a cost recovery," the letter said.
Airport increases charges
The scathing letter is the latest and most explosive blow to be publicly exchanged between the airline and the council over passenger fees.
Last month Rex threatened to cancel all 61 weekly flight slots between Dubbo and Sydney and allocate them to other regional cities in New South Wales.
In October the council defended its move to increase its passenger tax for the 2019-20 financial year by 13 per cent.
The council said the rise came after nil or minimum increases in previous years and was needed to help realise its draft airport master plan.
But in its letter, Rex claimed the airport's fees were out of step with similar terminals, including Orange, Parkes and Griffith.
"Dubbo Regional Council is desperately trying to fudge the numbers to hide the enormity of the increase in airport charges it is imposing on the Dubbo community," it said.
Rex also questioned the credentials of council staff responsible for drawing up its master plan.
Mr Hai likened the plan — which projected the future use of jets for passengers and freight — to a "pipe dream".
"The master plan contains unrealistic projections on future aircraft types, which in our opinion is nothing more than a pipe dream," he said.
The airline's gripes with Dubbo Regional Council also extended to security screening.
In the 2019 financial year Rex paid Dubbo airport $1.4 million to screen its passengers.
In an interview with ABC, Rex's deputy chairman John Sharp complained his fleet are so small, passengers are not legally required to undergo such procedures.
"Dubbo is the only council that does this to us in our network of over 50 regional and rural airports," he said.
Letter 'unprecedented'
Mr Sharp hoped the letterbox campaign would mobilise the community to pressure their elected representatives to abandon their price hike.
"We would like the community to tell their council to start to behaving in a manner that will grow their local economy," he said.
He said the strong language used by his chairman in the letter was unprecedented and expected some "blowback".
"This is the first time we've ever had to go to these lengths to try and get a council to do the right thing by their local community," Mr Sharp said.
On Wednesday Dubbo Regional Council's chief executive officer Michael McMahon wouldn't be drawn to react.
"Council has been made aware by residents that Rex is again aggressively pushing its commercial agenda within our community," he said.
"We will not be engaging in an unproductive slinging match with Rex through the local media."
Council will meet again with Rex in early December.
