The Airlines Fight for KSA

• Immediately build a new parallel runway at Mascot as the most cost effective, practical and timely solution to increase Sydney’s air travel capacity.

• Accelerate Sydney radar and terminal upgrading to maximise airspace utilization.

• Push ahead with land acquisition at Badgerys Creek with a view to long-term development of a second Sydney airport. The airline industry had repeatedly warned since the 1970s that congestion at Sydney Airport was the greatest problem facing the Australian aviation industry. Sydney must now face the imminent fact that it will be forced to relinquish its position as Australia’s premier airport and that some international passengers will be forced to bypass Sydney.

Ansett and Australian Airlines cited a breakdown of domestic airline services at Sydney recently, as an increasingly frequent symptom of the critical situation at . Mascot. The present deteriorating situation was vividly exampled when bad weather at Sydney on November 16 and 17 resulted in aviation authorities limiting the airlines to three arrivals per hour, forcing widespread cancellations and delays. Each airline normally has six to seven hourly arrivals, with up to nine in heavy peaks. About 3,400 Ansett and Australian Airlines passengers, to and from Sydney, suffered unexpected delays and cancellations which flowed throughout the airlines’ domestic networks, affecting other cities. The increasingly frequent use of ‘slot times’ at Sydney was disrupting airline passengers nationally and costing them:n millions of dollars. The slot time system used by Air Traffic Control effectively rations Mascot runway use- and the runway is now fully used 52 weeks of the year. The slot time system is now routinely enforced Mondays and Fridays and is becoming an increasingly regular feature on other days.

If slots become permanent, both airlines’ national timetables will effectively be determined by Sydney’s congestion, to the detriment of travellers elsewhere in Australia.

Traffic delays at Sydney now cost Ansett and Australian Airlines alone, a cumulative $15m per year and this is passed on to passengers. “The airport is now saturated- and normal market growth combined with expected extra demand for entry to Sydney Airport from new operators after domestic airline deregulation in 1990 will make the situation worse,” their joint statement said.

The two airlines believed urgent Mascot upgrading was needed before Badgerys Creek airport development, which should be regarded as a longer term objective.

Concerns relating to Badgerys Creek included:

• The expected lengthy development time.

• Lack of adequate ground transport infrastructure between Badgerys Creek and Sydney. Ground transport would also be costly and time-consuming compared to Mascot.

• Badgerys Creek development was far more expensive than the development of a new Mascot runway.

• The environmental impact, particularly relating to noise, of new generation stage three airliners was greatly reduced compared to early jets, reducing the need to move to an isolated airport site.

• Any phased transfer of airline services from Mascot to Badgerys Creek would cause chaos for the huge percentage of passengers using Sydney to make connections between different airlines.

“The domestic airlines have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in new generation aircraft technology to reduce noise problems at Sydney Airport,” the joint statement said.

Use of wide bodied domestic aircraft such as Boeing 767s and Airbus A300s has allowed Ansett and Australian to reduce their number of Sydney movements while simultaneously increasing passenger numbers. Despite this, Sydney Airport was now saturated and national air travel faces a crisis unless there is a short-term solution. Both airlines hoped that the NSW State Government would make a positive statement regarding a parallel runway at KSA prior to Christmas.