New KSA Group Lobby For Second Runway

The Task Force states that whether Sydney retains its number one position in Australian aviation, and all the prosperity that goes with it, depends entirely on whether it develops its airport facilities to meet the growing needs of modern jet aircraft and the tens of thousands of additional tourists and business people who visit Sydney and Australia each year for the first time. The group justifiably warn that if KSA isn’t developed further by way of a third runway then Sydney will most definitely lose all growth in tourism, business and freight traffic to other cities such as Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth.

The ramifications of this, the group claim, would be disastrous for the more than 50 economic enterprises located at the airport which during 1984 generated a turnover of over $1. 5 billion dollars. Furthermore the airport provides additional revenue of more than $1. 1 billion dollars in surrounding municipalities and a further $500m elsewhere in the Sydney region. As a gateway to Australia KSA welcomed 1. 25m arrivals during 1984, this was worth an estimated $1. 6bn to Sydney alone and played a major role in increasing the city’s employment capacity.

The Task Force group also highlight the importance of aviation as an employer in the Sydney region. Their studies reveal that aviation employs directly some 14,200 people with a payroll of $313m while the flow-on affects a further 14,700 people in the Sydney region alone. The group therefore are actively working to ensure that Sydney does not lose any of this large market arid indeed the development of KSA will ensure thousands of newly created jobs in the years ahead.

Development of a third runway at Mascot, running parallel to the present north/south 16/34 runway has been a controversial issue for more than a decade now. Local Labour-dominated councils have for decades decried the presence of KSA. While noise certainly is a real environmental problem it is worth considering that the vast majority of people living anywhere near KSA deliberately moved to the region knowing full well that aircraft would be overflying their homes and that aircraft naturally enough make noise. Therefore one has to logically take their grumblings regarding noise with a pinch of salt as nobody forced them to deliberately settle beneath an approach path to begin with.

What has changed in recent years though is a minor softening amongst the basic anti-airport attitude of the local councils as they appreciate the work generation aspects of having a major industrial enterprise such as an airport within their environs. More than half of the 14,000 people who work at KSA live within ten kilometres of the airport. Eliminate the airport and you also eliminate a major source of local employment.

The other point is that aircraft are becoming increasingly quieter. After enduring the fire breathing early model 707s and 727s of the sixties many residents would nowadays be hard pressed to even notice the new generation of airliners as instanced by the BAe 146, Boeing 737-300, Fokker 50, Boeing 767 and A300.

These aircraft are all quieter than many of the turboprops that are presently allowed to operate night freight services on the sole basis that they have propellers! This antiquated mode of thinking has got to change within the Department of Aviation and there is some evidence that the DofA will accept ICAO Stage 3 aircraft for future selective night operations at KSA sometime later this year. This would be a step in the right direction and another move towards making it politically feasible to invest the billion-odd dollars in building Mascot’s third runway – a move that would save millions of dollars in fuel alone each year through reduced movement delays in addition to ensuring that KSA remains Australia’s foremost international gateway.