iscover
Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport has appointed Sara Hales as its new general manager.
Hales will officially begin in the role at the start of May and be responsible for the day-to-day running of Australia’s newest airport, Wellcamp said on Friday.
Previously, Hales was the airport’s commercial manager, having started at Wellcamp four years ago as a community liaison consultant.
“I believe in what the airport can achieve for our community and look forward to continuing to work with our team to ensure its success,” Hales said in a statemenet.
The appointment followed Phil Gregory’s resignation as general manger in January 2017. Gregory, who has formed his own support services company, was Wellcamp general manager from 2013 until he left the Wagners-owned airport.
Wagners chairman John Wagner has been managing the airport’s operation on an interim basis since Gregory’s resignation, according to a report in Toowoomba’s The Chronicle newspaper.
Wellcamp commenced operations in November 2014, with QantasLink offering the first regular public transport (RPT) flights to Sydney.
Since then, the airport has added domestic services from Regional Express and Airnorth, while Cathay Pacific has a once weekly cargo flight to Hong Kong.
Built without government money and at a construction cost somewhere “south of $200 million”, the airport has a 2,800m runway capable of handling 747 aircraft and a terminal that has an initial capacity for 1.4 million passengers a year.
Hales said she would be focused on building on what had been achieved so far.
“I remember watching the first pour of concrete in the passenger terminal a few years ago, and John (Wagner) said to me – this is an historic moment. I thought to myself, all the moments are historic around here – and there have been many – it’s been quite a ride,” Hales said.
“The airport is such an interesting, diverse business. It’s fun, and it will make and is making an enormous difference to people lives. This excites me and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead the business forwards.”
John Wagner said he was pleased to have appointed an internal candidate to the role.
“It’s great to see staff rise through the business ranks and look for opportunities to grow and develop within an organisation they are already invested in,” he said.
EH
says:Re Airport costs….
“Built without government money and at a construction cost somewhere “south of $200 million”, the airport has a 2,800m runway capable of handling 747 aircraft and a terminal that has an initial capacity for 1.4 million passengers a year”.
How can the cost estimates of Badgery’s Creek be as high as $4-5 billion?
Too many snouts in the trough……
AA – I’d love to see an educated and honest editorial on why the costs are so high at Badgery’s…. particularly when compared to Wellcamp….. any chance?
deano
says:They will have us believe that it’s comparing apples with oranges
Oh, the land at BC is not as flat as Wellcamp
The runways will be wider or thicker
There will be more nav aids
There will be a bigger terminal and road infrastructure
Oh Wellcamp is just built to a regional airport standard
ALL BS
Aside from a larger terminal that would be needed and dual taxiways, the proposed BC and Wellcamp are same same
And if Wagners were given the job to build and run BC, I would think that they could do the whole thing for under a billion and provide a cost effective LCC airport for Sydneys west
And this is absolutely what BC should be
QF have said they want QF at KSA and Jetstar at BC
VA and Tiger would be in the same mindset
Along with Scoot, Air Asia, Cebu and alike
Budget landing fees and passenger levy along with reasonably priced parking and public transport would attract plenty of patronage
What is disturbing is that neither the government nor Wagners have said anything on the subject
The government would be negligent if they hadn’t spoken to Wagners and my belief is that they have and been rejected point blank because it’s not a good investment…….
Michael Angelico
says:Governments don’t like being told how to do things! The very last people they’ll talk to about building Badgerys will be the Wagners.
But since I’m not a Wagner… Hi Mal, here’s my top tips for building airports.
1. Build it with all the capacity Sydney (and surrounds) will need for the next 50+ years.
2. Build fast links to the CBD and major suburbs
3. Close the old airport and sell it off to fund the project. That way anyone can interchange between any flight and any other flight.
Not that hard really…