Hunter Global: Our International Future summit hears Singapore and freight opportunities for Newcastle Airport international expansion

The Hunter Global: Our International Future summit was hosted by the Hunter Joint Organisation, made up of the region's 10 councils, at Newcastle City Hall to prepare for the international runway completion next year.

The first day of the two day event heard from government and industry leaders with an aim of stakeholders working together to benefit from the upgrade.

"It's one thing getting a grant from the federal government for the airfield ... but I liken it to a road," Newcastle Airport CEO Peter Cock said. "Unless you've got people driving on it and trucks taking goods, people visiting relatives - that's where the real energy and value comes out of it. It's about the region coming together to recognise that and not waiting for it to be built, but getting ahead of the game and controlling our own destiny."

Dr Cock spoke about the initial strategy for flights.

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"We're proposing Singapore as a really obvious location, or a hub in Asia that gets us to both a lot of Asian destinations and also Europe," he said. "Then the airline is probably going to be a low cost carrier model, maybe something like Scoot or Air Asia."

Oliver Lamb of aviation consultancy Ailevon Pacific said his first choice market would be Singapore. He also spoke about challenges and advantages for the airport.

He said next generation aircraft were smaller, more efficient and longer range, meaning less passengers were needed to fill the flights.

"You now no longer need three million people in your catchment area to support a long haul service," he said.

Mr Lamb also used the Gold Coast as an example of a non-capital airport that has "leaned into its own brand image" rather than trying to be a gateway to Brisbane, and said Newcastle should do the same in relation to Sydney.

Greater Sydney Commission chief commissioner Geoff Roberts agreed that Newcastle should diversify itself and compared the region to Western Sydney.

"The real elixir of an airport is the indirect jobs," he said. "In Western Sydney, we made a decision very early on that we were not going to build an airport, we were going to build an airport city and I reckon that's your key opportunity."

He said Western Sydney "completely underestimated" freight, which Newcastle could learn from.

"We have got three and a half billion people within a flight of your airport that are subject to free trade agreements," he said. "That is a game changer."

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