Rising in the west

The ramp up of fleets is relentless.

The Brisbane-based airline, which launched its Perth to Derby services plans to add more routes to its Perth operation and possibly a second A320.

Qantas has added another 168-seat 737-800 to its Perth base, bringing the overall fleet to 11 aircraft, including six 115-seat 717s.
The aircraft allowed the airline to recently increase its Perth to Karratha return services from 41 to 48 a week, with Perth-Port Hedland upped from 23 to 25 flights. Paraburdoo services also went up from 19 to 21 a week.

Skywest Airlines recently re-launched its Kalgoorlie to Melbourne service and the airline is acquiring its tenth 100-seat Fokker 100 jet and added its eighth F-50 in March while its first A320 arrived in Melbourne in early April. It is expected the airline will acquire at least four A320s.

Incredibly just three years ago the airline had just three F-100s and five F-50s with management told to get rid of one F-100.

Alliance Airlines which has four F-100s based in Perth purchased eight more to support resource projects.

There are now more than 100 aircraft either parked overnight or based at Perth Airport.

However the boom is creating major problems with congestion at Perth Airport because of the demand to fly to resources sites on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because of rostering demands from workers.

At the same time resource companies want workers to fly first thing in the morning creating a situation of no take-off slots available between 5.30am and 7am on those three days.

And those early morning peaks combined with a change in flight paths around Perth to accommodate the air traffic and address safety issues with extensive military airspace has Perth’s hills residents clamoring for a curfew.

The airport is not planning to build a second parallel runway to relieve congestion for 20 years with Perth Airport chief executive Brad Geatches claiming that “to date” the airport had been able to handle the demands of airlines during the morning peak period.

Defending it position the airport also claimed air traffic control improvements to be made by Airservices Australia and high-speed taxiway exits will “significantly improve” its ability to handle the peaks.

However, an Airservices Australia spokesman told Contrails that “the improvements would be insignificant”.

Meanwhile Perth Airport is now building commercial properties on the site of the second parallel runway.

Resource companies have told Contrails they are concerned about the airport’s ability to handle the growth and this has led to some companies looking at altering their fly-in, fly-out strategy and more direct flights from the Eastern States.

In March Qantas responded announcing direct services from Melbourne and Sydney to Karratha to start in May.

At the same time resource companies are striving to fly workers from regional centres such as Busselton to the south of Perth but are being thwarted by local residents who insist that a 10pm to 7am curfew remain in place.

Busselton Chamber of Commerce CEO Ray McMillan told Contrails that the South-West was missing a great opportunity because of a restrictive noise curfew.

Rio Tinto operates one charter flight a week after 7am but wanted to increase that significantly but at 5.30am.

The Chamber of Commerce wants daily scheduled flights to the Pilbara to meet the needs of the many contractors who live in the region and work in the Pilbara but must drive to Perth to catch a flight.

The air travel boom in WA is without precedent in Australia and all forecasts are constantly found wanting.

For instance Perth Airport in its 2009 Master Plan forecast virtually now growth from 2010 through 2011 but so far this year is up 6 per cent.

And serious concerns have been expressed about the ability of Perth Airport to handle the air traffic generated by WA’s rebounding economy by Federal Canning MP Don Randall who told Contrails that he believed that Perth Airport was damaging the city’s reputation as the gateway to the nation’s economic heart.

“I think we are being duped and the airport’s latest 2009 master plan does not reflect the true state of the situation or the growth we can expect,” he said.

His concerns were that the WA public and industry was being shown fancy terminal plans but the airport was not delivering and called for “leadership from the leaseholders, Westralia Airport Corporation.

Mr Geatches has responded strongly to the claims saying that the investment plans were “progressing well.”

However there is turbulence ahead with no airlines yet signed up the for the airport’s proposed low cost terminal that is supposed to relieve congestion and it appears that the airport will remain in catch up mode for years to come.