Statement regarding airport cafe

Published on 01 July 2019

Council wishes to clarify some misinformation that is currently being circulated regarding the airport cafe.

After successive years of financial losses at the airport, Council resolved in February 2017 to review all aspects of the facility's operations including the cafe to try and make the airport commercially viable.

An investigation of costs at the airport revealed that the cafe lease was a significant financial burden for Council.

Council met with the previous cafe operators to explain that the lease would be reviewed, and encouraged them to reapply.

The operators explained that they were looking to exit the business, but agreed to continue at the cafe on a month by month basis while Council conducted its review, for which Council was very grateful.

As stated in Council's release on June 26, the former operators gave Council notice on May 22, 2019 that they were not intending to continue running the cafe, and were not interested in entering into a new license agreement.

Council subsequently put an expression of interest to the market via First National Broken Hill to find new operators, and that opportunity remains current.

Cleaning of the airport terminal is carried out by Council staff, the facility is opened and closed by security personnel, and staff from both Council and NTL will remain stationed at the airport terminal until a new operator for the cafe is found.

Council cannot disclose the terms of the previous lease without the former operators’ consent.