A Fix for Sydney Airport’s Problems?

A Total Fix to Sydney’s Aviation Problems

To virtually everybody in the aviation industry the present ‘problems’ at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport border on the absurd. With a fair dose of lateral thinking we offer this lighthearted overview of what a skilled outsider might well make of the situation. John Laurie reports on what could be….

There is a community battle raging over the use of Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport (KSA), and while in the short term one individual or group may gain an advantage over another, in the long term it will be the people of Australia who pay the price. Logic and reason seem to have been replaced by invective and fact-free assertions. What would the situation look like to somebody who is independent from local influences, and who has a detailed knowledge of planning air operations? Suppose Airservices Australia has been unable to find a suitable Australian to lead the organisation, and has appointed a Chief Executive (CE for short) with overseas experience. Imagine that he has just arrived at his office in Canberra and is discussing the management of Sydney air traffic with his Briefing Officer (BO).

“So tell me son, how does Sydney Airport work? At the end of my flight from LA we had to hold quite a while before getting a landing slot, yet while I was waiting in the airport lounge for my flight to Canberra I did not see a single aircraft arrive or depart from the East-West runway. We could have landed on a straight-in approach to the west! I can tell you that after a 14 hour flight, circling for half an hour does not put you in the right frame of mind to enjoy Australia. What gives?”

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