The airline, which started direct flights from Wagga to Brisbane last year, was the subject of a request from Dubbo Regional Council to wind up the airline, according to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. A hearing was set down for the Supreme Court next month.

Managing director Paul Bredereck said Dubbo Regional Council was trying to bully the airline into paying up, but the legal stoush wouldn’t affect Wagga customers.

“To be clear this is not insolvency action!” Mr Bredereck said. “It is merely an application attempting to bully JetGo into paying a disputed account. I do not see that it has any bearing on services to Wagga.”

JetGo commenced operations in and out of Dubbo in 2015 after two years of negotiations between the company and the former Dubbo City Council and Mr Bredereck said his company had invested too much time and money into the city to consider pulling out.

“It is unfortunate and highly unusual that Dubbo Regional Council has chosen to go down this path, and we would consider it to be ethically inappropriate,” Mr Bredereck told Dubbo’s Daily Liberal. “We’ve tried to make contact with the mayor of Dubbo and the general manager but we get referred to their lawyers. We’re happy to try and sort the issues out and discuss them, but we can’t even get the chance to speak to anyone at the council.”

Dubbo mayor Ben Shields said JetGo’s claims contained a number of ‘factual errors’ and the matter was being handled appropriately.

“Ten councillors all endorsed the course of action,” Cr Shields said. “Let me be very clear when I say that this matter has the backing of all councillors, and as such the community can be assured that the issue is being dealt with appropriately.”

Mr Bredereck said he believed his company would successfully fight the order in court next month, saying the council had previously agreed to “waive all passenger charges, landing fees and parking fees for the first year of the operation” and provide a discount in the second year.

According to JetGo, there were no incentives in place with Wagga City Council and all previous agreements had been honoured.