Inverell may lose a proposed a flight training school to the Liverpool Plains region.

The Inverell Shire Council says it would take about one year to complete the planning requirements for the local airport to prepare for the development.

However, the company behind the proposal wants to have the business completed within six months and has now started discussions with the Liverpool Plains Shire.

The Mayor of Inverell, Barry Johnston, says the major hurdle has been finding the right place for accommodation for the students.

"Bringing trainee pilots from other countries, you'd have to provide accommodation," he said.

"It needs to be more than dormitory type accommodation because they're going to be here for some period, they need reasonable lifestyle opportunities.

"The fact that it's actually residential rather than overnight stays was just a bit difficult in our planning to be carried immediately adjacent to the airport."

Councillor Johnston, says it is disappointing that the local airport will miss out.

"This proposal has been around for some years.

"It started with Gunnedah and I saw publicity close to 18 months or two years ago.

"So, Inverell was known to that person, it's just unfortunate that they didn't start with us much sooner and we could have had all this work done because, we didn't know until we met the person exactly what we needed."