White Paper leads to new blueprint?

The safe and efficient carriage of people and freight is the core activity of regional airlines. The ongoing development of Baro-Vnav and SBAS (satellite based) approaches, particularly the latter, will mean simpler, safer, ILS-type approaches to a significant number of regional airports. A similar system is widely used in the USA and now outnumbers ILS approaches. However there is much work to be done in Australia before the new systems become reality. It will require a strong desire from industry and government to work in a concerted partnership. The technology exists but the complex, detailed certification work on the approaches, airfields and equipment needs to be completed. When the work is done, approach minima will be reduced to near equal to ILS levels meaning a host of savings on regional routes in fuel and time without compromising safety.

These technologies should have the same importance as other national infrastructure efforts with respect to road, rail and sea-ports. The recent federal budget was virtually silent on aviation. The industry is anticipating that the upcoming Aviation White Paper will offer a policy blueprint for the future of Australian aviation. There is an historic opportunity with the White Paper to design achievable goals and support the opportunities above. While debate around a second Sydney Airport and who owns Qantas makes for good headlines, rebuilding Australian aviation should be the primary focus of the paper. There is no reason why the industry cannot return to the first rank in a range of niche markets and products, with the correct industry/government partnerships and policy settings.