Regional aviation doesn’t just move people. It holds communities together.

Early in my career at Airservices Australia, during the height of the mining boom, I joined then CEO Greg Russell and members of the executive team on a trip up Western Australia’s coastline to review aviation infrastructure under growing pressure.

Over three days we travelled north from Perth through Karratha, Broome and Port Hedland, inspecting ageing air traffic control towers and aviation fire stations that were no longer fit for purpose. Flights were increasing, aircraft movements were accelerating, and regional airports were experiencing sustained growth.

What struck me most was not just the scale of activity, but how essential aviation had become to those communities and the industries they support.

The trip concluded in Darwin, where we had dinner with Michael Bridge, who was then the CEO of Airnorth. I was early in my career and one of many around the table, so he would not remember me, but I remember him!

What stayed with me was not a typical industry discussion about aircraft types or market competition. It was his genuine enthusiasm for regional aviation. Greg too added to the conversation, expressing deep passion about the role of aviation, telling expressive stories about his previous experience working in regional aviation.

Both men spoke candidly about the benefits of creating opportunities for people who live in regional communities, about the responsibility airlines carry in connecting remote towns, and about aviation as a service that underpins health, education, employment and social cohesion.

Their energy was infectious. That evening was one of the moments when I truly understood the value aviation delivers across a country as large and dispersed as Australia.

When regional aviation struggles, regional Australia feels it first

That memory has stayed with me, particularly as the sector faces renewed pressure today.

The recent financial struggles experienced by Regional Express have highlighted how exposed regional connectivity becomes when an airline’s commercial position weakens. Government intervention to stabilise essential services was necessary, and it also served as a reminder that when regional aviation falters, the impacts are felt immediately by the communities it serves.

Reduced services restrict access to medical care, make education and training harder to reach, slow regional businesses and weaken confidence in a town’s future. For many Australians, regional aviation is not a luxury. It is critical infrastructure.

The quieter challenge: who will staff regional aviation tomorrow?

Alongside financial and operational pressures sit a quieter, longer-term risk. The sustainability of the aviation workforce.

Regional aviation is trying to maintain safe and reliable operations in the same communities that are losing young people to capital cities. Data consistently shows that school leavers from regional and remote areas are far more likely to move to metropolitan centres for education and work, and many do not return.

This creates a compounding challenge. The towns that rely most on aviation are often those with the thinnest future workforce pipeline.

If young people do not see aviation as a viable and visible career where they live, the sector will continue to rely on attracting talent from elsewhere. Over time, this becomes more expensive, less reliable and harder to sustain.

If you can see it, you can be it

Aviation careers need to be visible before students leave. If regional aviation is to remain resilient, engagement cannot begin at recruitment. It needs to start earlier, in schools and local communities.

Aviation offers far more than roles in the cockpit. Regional operations rely on aircraft maintenance engineers, avionics specialists, aviation firefighters, air traffic services, ground operations staff, safety professionals and operational leaders. These are skilled and meaningful careers that allow people to live and work in regional Australia.

However, they need to be seen to be believed.

Pathways need stronger connection to place

Australia already has strong aviation training institutions that support regional pathways, including TAFEs delivering pilot training and universities with aviation programs. In some regions, newer training offerings are emerging closer to where people live.

The challenge is not capability. It is connection.

Students need clearer links between school subjects, local airports, training providers and real jobs. They also need role models who come from similar towns and can show that staying regional does not mean limiting ambition.

In thinking about this challenge, two practical ideas stand out.

Meet young people where they already are

The first opportunity is simple, but powerful.

A national, always-on digital approach that helps young people in regional and remote communities see aviation as a genuine career option. Not through glossy marketing, but through real stories, real people and practical information.

This means content designed for the platforms students already use. Short videos, role spotlights and human stories that show what aviation jobs look like day to day. It also means simple pathway visuals that explain, in plain language, how someone moves from school into an aviation role, supported by classroom-ready resources that teachers and career advisers can use with confidence.

Importantly, this content needs to be easy to share across schools, families, youth groups and local aviation employers who want to start conversations in their own communities.

The value lies in reach. Students who may never visit an airport, meet someone in the industry or hear aviation mentioned as a career option still gain access to credible and relatable information. At scale, this early awareness helps position aviation as a realistic regional pathway, not something limited to capital cities.

Turn interest into aspiration through real experience

Awareness alone is not enough. At some point, interest needs to become personal.

The second idea builds on that foundation through a more immersive, hands-on approach delivered directly into regional schools and communities where aviation demand is strong but workforce participation remains low.

This involves bringing aviation professionals, including pilots, engineers, operators and drone specialists, into schools and community settings to talk openly about their work, their pathways and their experiences. Not as guest speakers passing through, but as people students can relate to and engage with.

These conversations are supported by practical aviation lab experiences. Tools such as VR headsets, drone systems, simulation software and STEM kits allow students to explore aviation challenges and problem-solving in a tangible way. These activities are deliberately designed to show how aviation skills are applied in the real world.

By combining direct engagement with hands-on experience, this approach helps bridge the gap between curiosity and confidence. It gives students something concrete to imagine themselves doing and allows industry to start building relationships with future talent much earlier.

Over time, this kind of exposure is what turns regional aviation from an idea into an aspiration, and from aspiration into a sustainable workforce pipeline grounded in regional communities.

A call to action for industry

That dinner in Darwin has stayed with me because it captured something fundamental. Regional aviation is about people serving people.

I do not know where Michael and Greg are today, or if they are still involved in aviation, however the enthusiasm they both showed for creating opportunity in regional communities is exactly the mindset the industry needs now.

If aviation is to continue supporting Australia’s regional and remote towns, it must invest deliberately in the next generation who already live there.