Brisbane in the spotlight

FIFO is dog eat dog. Brisbane based aircraft ferry to Toowomba, Maroochy, Hervey Bay and other ports to run FIFOs from there just as GAs based there or interstate ferry to/from Brisbane or nearby to “steal” Brisbane FIFO work- wasting slots.

By next year Gladstone will house 3,000 new minerals workers. Many will work there or as at Mackay drive but if just 1000 fly each week airport throughput will rise by 100,000 pa. Inevitably their large earnings will generate more Gladstone/Brisbane traffic- wherever they work. Proserpine seeks to rapidly house 800 -more BNE flights? Bowen seeks to cash in with its vast new coal port. Many bag airlines for flooding BNE with small aircraft from E70s ( now gone) to F70/100s and 717s. But these- generating up to 40+ daily BNE movements and the large Qantas Dash 8 400 fleet are far larger than the regional types of two years back, saving slots .Notwithstanding mainline will have to use larger aircraft.

Had New BNE been built when planned all would have been well, but no-one saw FIFO and regional booms coming. But things may have been even worse as originally14/32 was to close for conversion to an A380+ capable taxiway some years before the parallel runway opened .It was closed on 1 October for just 6 months to allow works on the new runway and will reopen at its former status.- accompanied by an enhanced runway traffic capacity system.

14/32 restrictions have been widely miss quoted and blamed for the massive holding.14/32 was NOT banned from night use after the light aircraft incident of 2011, rather from simultaneous converging ops at night and the very useful SIMOPS use of 14 and 19 by day. SIMOPS has very stringent rules – see ERSA not media efforts. 14/32 can be used- by up to 320/737 with weight/tyre limits- with 19 and 01 on a separated basis by day and night as are the crossing runways at say Sydney or Rockhampton. It is understood this will be the situation once 14/32 reopens around May.

The present situation since losing 14/32 saw Traffic holding- applying 24 hrs daily- increased to from 10 minutes incrementally to 50 for the period 5pm-10pm Sunday to Friday ( vide ASA Briefing site). A Slots system, initiated by BACL and using Air Cordination Australia based on nominally 50 movements per hour will be introduced on 28 October and ASA will introduce an enhanced capacity system and METRON later. The ICAO based Slots system has abuse safeguards to prevent,,as occurred originally at Tokyo where an operators would fly a KingAir out to the territorial limit and back to save a cancelled flight’s slot. Metron attracted much WA question but is now reportedly more mature and its capability better quantified.

Planning some flights the prior day at 4pm to get a slot can be near impossibly as long return flights to as far as SA and WA are near crew hour limits, no forecasts exist and en route refuel stops can be impossible to pick – making the ETA BNE “tomorrow afternoon” highly rubbery .But contrary to wide reports “on the day” ATC aided by METRON will run it all, the Slots arranged by ASA’s National Ops Centre, BNE ATC Flow and Tower being the key drivers, the last tactical tool being to stop departures if holding becomes excessive. But many departures are locked into rigid SYD landing slots- another problem.

But a heavy storm threat – a curfew- looms- some say enhanced by enforced greater use of 19/01 now.740