In need of urgent fixes

The second Sydney airport enquiry selected Wilton – a lemon – with critical problems affecting takeoff and climb gradients. Badgerys Creek has again been favoured, but not chosen. But even if work started on a new airport tomorrow it would still be years away from being delivered. This really demands an immediate fix.

Sydney has a blatantly political movement cap – a global oddity. Air traffic control has upgraded air and surface radars, and introduced many traffic improvements. But the airport must be allowed to operate at its true capacity between 0600 and 2300.

Worse, lack of any catch-up provision means capacity is simply lost in bad weather or for other reasons. A catch-up provision outside curfew hours makes sense and with many of today’s turboprop and jet aircraft theoretically able to operate during a curfew, closing the airport to all but ‘quiet’ and emergency traffic on a very limited basis between 2300 and 0600 onlyworsens the capacity issue. Surely ‘quiet’ catch-up flights free of limitations should be allowed.

Some favour a third 1,500m 16/34 runway west of 16R/34L to handle turboprops. Others believe hydraulics problems due to the interaction of the tide and nearby river could be serious, and it would involve long taxi distances, but if it is feasible and provided it does not affect 16R/34L, it could provide a shorter-term solution.

Brisbane needs the parallel runway now, not in seven years time. But would the original Airport 86 plan, driven by operational and not funding criteria, and which designated the parallel runways and runway 14/32, still be a better solution even if such a configuration required the threshold of 19R to be slid to the southwest to cater for the vast growth in traffic that can use 14/32?.

Subject to separation and weather conditions, up to 250 scheduled and RFDS aircraft per day can use 14/32, in addition to the GA aircraft that already use the runway. Furthermore, if onerous limits on converging and simultaneous operations on 14/32 can be eased, it becomes more valuable.

Pleasingly, the high-speed exit E5 off runway 32 has been restored. Can the other closed taxiways be restored and if viable two more high speed exits off 01/19 be added? In any situation, air traffic control – via Airservices – should be the final arbiter on capacity and optimising it with the available airport infrastructure.

The new runway can’t be speeded up due to the time needed to dredge a massive sand bank and let it settle. In true Yes Minister fashion, once the dredges and equipment had been assembled ready to lay the foundations for the existing runway, suggestions they also then lay the foundations for the new 01L/19R were refused. This decision cost Brisbane a seven-year delay.

While we now wait for 2020 when it is said the new runway will be completed, one more temporary fix is needed. The largest possible aircraft viable should be used on services through Sydney and Brisbane. Many travellers function efficiently on three or four services a day – or even a week – but hourly flights invite lazy planning.

Brisbane to Townsville and Cairns are close to one million passengers a year and more widebody aircraft could be used on these routes since each of the airports is 747-capable. Qantas, using chartered 717s and F100s on heavier regional routes is commendable, but there should be more use of this class of aircraft by all operators, with acceptable regional frequencies preserved.

A decline in some regional loads through Brisbane appears to be due more to Sydney and Melbourne flights bypassing Brisbane’s congestion. Qantas’s recent introduction of Sydney-Gladstone direct Dash 8-Q400 services is again commendable, but this route was previously flown by jets, and to save Sydney slots hopefully will again support larger aircraft.

The three surrounding overflow airports at the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and – soon – Wellcamp near Toowoomba, are a long way from the bulk of the catchment area served by Brisbane Airport. In any event the use of such airports would be self-defeating at Sydney if passengers who opt not to use a Brisbane-Sydney widebody service end up on up on a smaller jet from a satellite while the Brisbane jet still operates – wasting yet another Sydney slot.

The long time before Brisbane’s new runway and Sydney’s second airport open will see much grief unless some hard decisions are made quickly. Hopefully the politicians concerned will agree.