Following the announcement on Thursday, Wagga City Council’s general manager, Peter Thompson, congratulated Toowoomba Regional Council on its success and remained confident about Wagga’s bid.

“It’s a great airport up there and they’ve got $35 million on the table for new buildings, which they’ll start and be finished in time to host the academy,” Mr Thompson said.

“Certainly we didn’t have $35m to spend on new buildings.

“What we offered was something different – it was a very powerful bid.

“Wagga has a compelling case to host this type of facility in line with our partnership with CSU and the infrastructure already in place at Wagga Airport.”

In addition to Toowoomba and Wagga, seven other regional cities have submitted bids: Alice Springs, Bendigo, Busselton, Dubbo, Launceston, Mackay and Tamworth.

Qantas’s selection criteria include access to uncongested airspace, a high proportion of clear weather days per year, access to support infrastructure and the ability to attract students and trainers to live in the area.

“We know that when we had the inspection, Qantas had a preference for having facilities at the airport rather than at the university,” Mr Thompson said.

“I think that anyone who can provide facilities or the funding to build facilities, which is what Toowoomba has done, at the airport are probably in a good position as far as Qantas’ needs are concerned.”

Asked whether he was confident about Wagga Airport’s infrastructure, Mr Thompson said there were “eight other cities that have good bids”.

“We’re not under any illusions about that,” he said.

“It’s just finding the partner that wants to train at a university and at an airport, rather than just at an airport, which is what the Qantas Academy is looking at the moment [as well].”

The Academy is part of the Qantas Group’s strategy to build a long-term talent pipeline for its own airlines and help the broader industry meet the increasing need for skilled aviators.

The airline said estimations suggest 790,000 more pilots will be needed globally in the next 20 years with about one third of them in the Asia Pacific.

Mr Thompson said that should the city not receive the green light for as the second location, the council would continue trying to capitalise on the Asia-Pacific pilot market.

“We have an airport that has capacity, we have very clear blue skies with few restrictions, we have a university that has lecturing space and accommodation that can house an academy and provide tertiary qualifications in addition to pilot qualifications – we’ll be pursuing that,” he said.

“The community has given us a loud message they want growth in the Wagga area.”

CSU Vice-Chancellor, professor Andrew Vann, congratulated the council on the bid process and re-affirmed its support to pursue pilot education and training.

“We wholeheartedly support Wagga looking for new opportunities and believe we have strong resources and facilities to support that,” Professor Vann said.

“Wagga has so much to offer this industry: the combination of the city’s aviation facilities and tertiary education opportunities through CSU provides an attractive option for pilot training in a leading regional city.”

The Academy is expected to eventually grow to train as many as 500 pilots a year across two sites, including for other airlines and general aviation.

“Narrowing down the possible locations has not been easy,” Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said.

“We have been really impressed with the enthusiasm and quality of proposals from the shortlisted cities.”

Decision about the second location will be made before the end of the year.

The Toowoomba academy is set to open its doors by mid-2019.

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