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The Australian Airports Association (AAA) has presented its annual National Airport Industry Awards recognising the contributions and achievements of AAA member organisations and individuals over the last 12 months.
There were 41 nominations across three award categories: the Individual Award for Airport Excellence, Corporate Project of the Year and Airport of the Year.
The CEO of the Australian Airports Association, Caroline Wilkie said: “More than almost any other country, Australia depends on its aviation sector and airport network to keep its people, services and markets connected, ranging from the smallest landing strips in remote Indigenous communities through to our international gateways.
“Our awards recognise the people, companies and organisations who keep this sector going. Importantly, they also highlight the ongoing investment that is being made by public and private operators of our airports to ensure that all Australians have access to world-class airport infrastructure that will support the future growth of our vital aviation sector,” Wilkie added.
Winners of this year’s categories were:
AIRPORT OF THE YEAR
Capital City Airport of the Year
Canberra Airport – Multi-user Terminal
$480 million redevelopment of the terminal precinct through the ‘AirVolution’ project. Largest private sector investment in Canberra’s history which has delivered a world-class terminal for the national capital. The project comprised roads, car parking, apron and terminal elements.
Major Airport of the Year
Cairns International Airport – T1 International Improvements Project
Multi-faceted project to transform the end-to-end journey for departing international passengers.
Regional Airport – 50,000 to 499,999 passengers – joint winners
Mildura Airport – main terminal redevelopment
Comprehensive redevelopment of existing terminal area, and added new floor areas to enable future expansion.
Wagga Wagga Regional Airport – commercial and recreational precincts development
New commercial and recreational aircraft precincts provide infrastructure, services and development sites to cater for demand for commercial and recreational aviation development for many years to come.
Regional Airport – less than 50,000 passengers
Portland Airport, Victoria
An impressive $2.1 million program of infrastructure improvements included expansions to the terminal, general apron, new taxiway lighting and additional floodlighting to improve apron security and safety, and new airport management offices.
Non-certified aerodrome – joint winners
Exmouth Aerodrome, WA – Solar Runway Lighting Project
After catastrophic failure of a lighting system more than 20 years old, Exmouth Aerodrome installed solar LED lighting units for its runway and taxiway lighting.
Gannawarra Shire Council – Cohuna Aerodrome Upgrade Phase 1
The upgrade project delivered critical infrastructure improvements to accessibility and capacity.
Non-RPT Certified Airport
Parafield Airport – Community Engagement Project
As part of its master planning process, the community engagement project highlighted the importance of the airport to the local community. Parafield developed a new noise metric and the airport manager undertook flying training to get a better understanding of flying operations.
CORPORATE PROJECT OF THE YEAR
Corporate project for membership categories C24 & C25
The Airport Group – Brisbane Airport Prescribed Airspace
With the view of providing clearer and more usable information for its 2013 master plan document, The Airport Group provided a 3-dimensional description of the prescribed airspace as defined in Commonwealth legislation.
Corporate project for membership category C26
Fulton Hogan and GHD – Cocos Island Airport Resurfacing
Design and construction of resurfacing of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Airport. Works were scheduled to avoid disruption to regular flights, but also had to manage unscheduled flights occurring on a daily basis while minimizing impact on project cost and timeline.
INDIVIDUAL AWARD FOR AIRPORT EXCELLENCE
Non-RPT Certified Airport
Neil Cooper, La Trobe Regional Airport (Traralgon, Victoria)
Regional Airport
Peter Aird, District Council of Lower Eyre Peninsula (South Australia)
Capital City Airport
Guy Thompson, Perth Airport Highly commended:
Paul Connell, Brisbane Airport Jill Holdsworth, Northern Territory Airports Ian Lockhart, Brisbane Airport
Team Award
Landside Infrastructure Team, Adelaide Airport
Special Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Airport Industry
Stephen Byron, CEO, Canberra Airport.
The awards were presented at this year’s AAA conference being held in Darwin.
There are more than 2,000 airports and airfields across Australia. Almost 130 of these are certified for regular passenger transport or charter aircraft that carry more than 30 passengers.
Nujje G
says:While the Canberra Airport and Steven Byron are awared honours – and the airport is a huge imporvement on what it was there is a dark side.
Canberra now has no affordable operating places for light aircraft and most operators have relocated to Goulburn, Tumut, Cootamundra, Temora or other country towns in the region. Those owner/operators of light aitcraft that are left are paying more and more for less and less.
Canbera now has no Pilot Training clubs or facilites available because they have all shut down.