Rex has blamed a chronic pilot shortage for this year’s decision to axe Melbourne – Griffith flights and cut flights from its Griffith – Sydney weekend schedule.

Mr Piccoli urged the community and council representatives to ride the crisis through with Rex, rejecting calls to lure another airline to Griffith.

“People really need to be patient because a lot of this is beyond Rex’s control,” Mr Piccoli said.

“This idea of jets flying in is utterly ridiculous. Even in the unlikely event an airline offered to do it, it would be one flight in the morning and one in the afternoon.

“We’re much better served with the greater frequency of flights Rex is offering at the moment.”

Mr Piccoli said the public outcry was doing nothing to help the relationship between Rex and Griffith.

And he said those calling on Rex to solve the crisis by paying pilots more was simply unworkable.

“The way their business model works, they can’t afford to simply up salaries, just like The Area News can’t afford to pay columnists $300,000 a year,” Mr Piccoli said.

But while he didn’t support the idea of jets flying into Griffith, Cr Peter Fussell said it was vital the community kept pressure on Rex.

“It’s becoming increasingly difficult to get a flight out – and there aren’t a lot of cheap fares – which suggests Rex’s earn and load factor out of Griffith are very good,” Cr Fussell said.

“I understand the difficulty for Rex when it comes to pilots but the community has been very patient and when the pilot situation eases, it would be good to see that patience rewarded.”