If it had gone ahead, the barely-used airport in Glen Innes would have been transformed into a residential college for 600 trainee-pilots at a time, mostly from China but also from any of the world’s big airlines. It would have been an opening into a high-money, high-growth market.

But in a letter to the local council, Kingsley Mundey, Chairman of Australia Asia Flight Training (the company behind the project), said that “after some 12 years of attempting to realise our vision for a residential pilot training academy in regional Australia, we have decided to abandon the project”.

Grants of $1.3 million have been paid by the state and federal governments and those are lost to the tax-payer.

The chairman of the company said that “all debts payable to the council will be paid in full”. Glen Innes mayor, Steve Toms, said: “We received this news with disappointment and acknowledge that the developers have honoured agreements.”

To prepare for the venture, the council put in sewage and water supplies (though paid for by the federal and NSW governments). Those pipes will either have to be maintained or allowed to fall into disuse.

The airport (GLI is its international designation) is currently used only by recreational pilots, emergency service aircraft, crop sprayers and small freight planes. It is, though, top technical-quality with a high-grade runway long enough to take all but the biggest commercial jets.

A former flight instructor who used the airport said he was concerned that the cost to the council of maintaining the facility in a viable condition in the hope of new lucrative projects would now prove too much and it could “walk away”.

James Gresham thinks the market is still there because the demand for Chinese speaking pilots is growing exponentially as Chinese people fly more and Chinese airlines expand on international routes. One avenue to reap the profits of that in New England has now closed.