Airport spokesman Cr Neville Hull said yesterday that the city was set to miss out again on generous federal subsidies to improve security at the council-owned facility that handles almost 300,000 passengers a year.

The Federal Government refused to subsidise the $462,952 the council will spend over five years to lease scanning equipment installed when Virgin Blue’s 78-seat Embraer jets began operating from Albury in February 2008.

Government regulations imposed in 2008 required airports to screen bags of all travellers leaving from any regional airport on jet planes, or a turbo-prop plane departing within half-an-hour of a jet’s departure.

Such machines ensure explosives and other prohibited items are not loaded on planes.

Albury didn’t have such a jet service when an initial round of federal grants was made, and couldn’t get one when the city council decided, for commercial reasons, to support Virgin Blue’s entry into the local market.

“We are now going to miss out a second time over the Qantas Q400 turbo-prop planes,’’ Cr Hull said.

He said that the Government’s $32 million announced for regional airport security on Tuesday would go partly to airports prepared to accept the Q400, but these planes began running from Albury in September 2008.

A retrospective subsidy to Albury seems unlikely.

Albury received about $700,000 in federal funds from the Howard Government in 2006 for early security measures that ultimately cost $846,000 but has had little or nothing since.

More security measures were installed last year when new lounges and check-out counters were opened at the terminal.

Costs of the security upgrades are, in effect, recouped from travellers through the landing charges imposed on individual airlines.

Ratepayer funds are not used on the airport as it is a commercial enterprise.