Brisbane relief

The prime complaint is that Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) has created this situation by delaying construction of the parallel runway for seven years while users part fund it on lay-by.

Using Airport Co-ordination Australia, BAC introduced a slot system to manage movements. Airservices introduced Metron, something that has also been questioned by industry. Under this system, Airservices’ National Operations Centre, the NOC, manages flights on a real time basis when weather, demand and other inputs can be managed tactically on the day.

Airservices has promulgated rigid traffic management procedures, most recently using terminal area speed control as a primary means of managing flow and capacity. Contrary to erroneous reports, as a result only half the original simultaneous two-runway combinations are available by day in good weather and individual operations using all runways at night. One medium jet will reportedly not use 14/32 despite its landing weight being inside 14/32’s limits. And when instrument approaches are in use delays are further lengthened.

Airservices’ new Stradbroke Island surveillance radar does not have the capacity of Sydney’s high rotation, high refresh rate PRM radar, but is complemented by a new surface tracking/guidance system equal to Sydney’s. While these represent a very positive improvement, in short, the airport layout cannot handle what air traffic systems now can.

With Brisbane in a quandary, some advocate the use of nearby “overflow” airports. This has only ever worked in a few places, notably under New South Wales’ previously highly regulated system. Indeed bus feeder services were common to places like Port Macquarie, Young and Inverell long before their own airports appeared. Today’s time-starved users would shun them.

But returning to the proposed ‘nearby ports’ Brisbane might use, Gold Coast (with an OTP position of 32) has no ILS. It is exposed to more onshore weather than Brisbane, which is shielded by the Bay islands, gets similar thunderstorms including severe long-lived ones born when lines of storms from south and west collide, but less fog. Gold Coast also has a curfew, something self-inflicted by airlines looking to dodge the historical curfew in Brisbane. Opinion abounds that Gold Coast flights divert more often to Brisbane than the reverse. There are thus many reasons why the use of Gold Coast as a bypass airport is flawed.

Sunshine Coast (boasting an OTP position of 15) is also exposed to onshore weather and storms. Its narrower runway, aligned more perpendicular to the prevailing winds, sees more aircraft types with a lower cross-wind limit adversely impacted than on the Brisbane or Coolangatta runways, especially when wet. Like with Gold Coast, opinion is more that Sunshine Coast flights divert to Brisbane than the reverse, and thus its use as a bypass is also flawed. A new 45m-wide runway more aligned into wind is planned, but the answer is needed now.

Two new projects also represent potential, but offer as much challenge as opportunity.

Lockyer Valley Regional Airport near Gatton gets Amberley’s fogs and storms, but its runway is approximately Dash 8 level. However, given scheduled aircraft would require instrument (and probably R-NAV) approaches and require virtually unrestricted climb towards Sydney, undelayed access through RAAF airspace would be essential, something unlikely given Amberley is destined for more airspace-consuming fighter traffic.

Meanwhile, a new airport with a 2,870m-long runway is being constructed near Toowoomba at Wellcamp. Domestic links aside, international flights by aircraft up to 747s on seven-hour legs are being considered. But like Lockyer Valley, proximity to military airspace and the need for instrument approaches seemingly creates near-impenetrable difficulties when contemplating civil scheduled movements anywhere near the level needed to be a viable alternative to Brisbane.

There may be hope, however. If the currently-planned reprofiling of two taxiway exits were created as high-speed exits. In combination with the recent air traffic system improvements, airfield capacity could be improved significantly. This would also help when the shorter 14/32 runway closes for good some time before the new runway opens.

In reality, the only solution seems to be to improve Brisbane – but with greater urgency than is currently the case.

There are many reasons why the use of Gold Coast as a bypass airport is flawed.