Businesses at Scone Airport in the NSW Upper Hunter say they are preparing for a "nuclear winter" amid claims that a prolonged shutdown of the airport could threaten the sustainability of their operations and see jobs go elsewhere.
The airport precinct is undergoing a $23-million suite of upgrades, including a new Warbirds museum for vintage military aircraft, as well as terminal and tarmac upgrades.
However, a planned 10-day closure of the runway has been increased to four weeks, which the Upper Hunter Shire Council says will save $2 million.
But two business operators based at the airport say they were blindsided by the decision to close the runway for a month from next Monday.
"I had zero consultations from council," said Bill Owen, who runs an aircraft maintenance business from a hangar at the airport.
"I wrote some letters, I've spoken to the council and they haven't answered me or answered my queries."
Mr Owen said he had almost completed repairs on aircraft in his workshop but would be unable to return them to clients before the runway closed next week.
He said he expected to lose up to $200,000 as a result of the shutdown.
Mr Owen said he was worried that some of his long-established customers might take their business to another maintenance facility and then he "might lose them for good".
Mayor defends runway closure
Mayor of the Upper Hunter Shire Maurice Collison has defended the decision to scrap a staged runway resurfacing project that would have caused just 10 days of disruption.
"We made this decision because we got a lot of criticism early on about borrowing this amount of money," Cr Collison said.
"So every million we could save and bring it under budget, not above, is to me a great decision."
Cr Collison said he sympathised with Mr Owen and council had "put some options on the table with Bill".
"I'll be finding out this week how many options we have given Bill to try to sort through this," he said.
Mr Owen said unlike the two other tenants at the airport, a charter business and a flying school, he could not move his operations to another airport.
"I have a highly skilled workforce, and my spares, I can't just go to Bunnings and buy nuts and bolts — my spares have to come from proper aircraft suppliers," he said.
"I can't just move my whole business and put it in a hangar."
'Forced into hibernation'
Upgrades to Scone Airport have long been an issue that has driven a wedge between the three airport tenants, and the Upper Hunter Shire Council.
Ben Wyndham, who owns a flying school based at the airport, has clashed with the council over its management of the airport.
"When you look at the impact of the work that's getting turned away, and the work that I have to take elsewhere instead of getting done here, it's like forcing us into this little nuclear winter where we have to go into hibernation," he said.
"There's no JobKeeper being offered by Scone council for this, there's no compensation being offered for this. We have to just cop this loss.
"I'm not going to quit, I'm not going to give up and I'm not going to run away — I'm going to stay and fight."
He claims decisions made by the Upper Hunter Shire Council have been designed to favour Pays Air Service, but the council should consider the impacts on all businesses at the airport.
"The big business on the airport is the big sexy business, the old World War II planes and the big sexy firefighting business," he said.
"We have our houses mortgaged against these businesses, we have staff to pay, I've got millions of dollars in aircraft finance."
Managing director of Pays Air Service Ross Pay denied that he had been given preferential treatment.
"I want to see everyone successful on the airport but I don't think I've been given any information that anyone else hasn't got on the airport," Mr Pay said.
He said he believed the airport upgrades would provide a net benefit for the Scone community.
"We'll have an airport that will be envied around the country," he said.
"I think with the museum facility that's being built here, I have pretty high hopes that it's going to attract a lot of tourists to the town, which hopefully then puts some money into the town."
