A better way?

Given wider applicability, the plan could be a way to overcome the delays and conflicts airports face – nowhere more so than with the 40-plus-year second Sydney airport pantomime and the 30-plus-year gestation of Brisbane’s new runway.

Airports face endless battles as they seek to obtain and save suitable space, including for expansion, and are at the mercy of airspace conflicts. That they also employ more than 108,000 workers and add $17. 3 billion to the economy (as of 2011) goes unreported.

Of Queensland’s 191 registered airports, 40 are rated as being strategically important, including major overhaul, training, Defence and private sites, with 15 having no regular air services.

Becker Helicopter Services on the Sunshine Coast reportedly turns out more helicopter pilots annually than the ADF. Queensland produces over 30 per cent of Australia’s UAV work, most at listed Watts Bridge. RAAF Base Amberley, which is home to C-17s and KC-30s, will attract more heavy overhaul work.

Should the RAN move from Sydney Harbour to Brisbane, more support will be needed. Given that Qantas and Virgin are consolidating maintenance in Brisbane, a larger civil/military overhaul hub looms.

Other maintenance centres supported cover sites up to the Dash 8 facility in Cairns. Qantas’s Dash 8 heavy maintenance facility at Tamworth, which was originally East-West Airlines’ F27 heavy maintenance facility, and Rex’s similar facilities are worthy of equal support, including expansion.

The scheme aims to work with all levels of government and industry to kill competing empires and neutralise threats that put airport operations at risk, let alone expansion. Airports are national assets, whatever their ownership status, especially in times of conflict or disaster.

Apart from space on the ground, airports sometimes require vast amounts of low-altitude airspace to accommodate the very flat takeoff and climb gradients that heavy long-haul operations demand – the lack of this helped kill Wilton. This cannot be retrospectively created when an expansion or

Airports sometimes require vast amounts of low-altitude airspace.

runway extension is needed. The proposed plan should be expanded to ensure the preservation of airspace that is reasonably likely to be needed at a later date.

‘New’ Brisbane is a classic case. The nearby Gateway Bridge is one of only two such structures in Australia. Regulators required high-tide clearance of 85ft under the bridge, while the height was limited to clear the climb gradient of, for example, a maximum-weight DC-9 with an engine out needing to return or perhaps divert to Coolangatta. No other design satisfied both requirements.

Lined up on RWY 22 at old Brisbane, the skyline ahead gently angled up right to the CBD – dictated by gradients. Had there been skyscrapers or a structure on the scale of Sydney Harbour Bridge in the way, the runways could not have been built. The Queensland system must therefore cover airspace by giving obstacle charts wider cover and stronger backing.

The fly-in fly-out (FIFO)runway extension is needed. The proposed plan should be expanded to ensure the preservation of airspace that is reasonably likely to be needed at a later date.

‘New’ Brisbane is a classic case. The nearby Gateway Bridge is one of only two such structures in Australia. Regulators required high-tide clearance of 85ft under the bridge, while the height was limited to clear the climb gradient of, for example, a maximum-weight DC-9 with an engine out needing to return or perhaps divert to Coolangatta. No other design satisfied both requirements.

Lined up on RWY 22 at old Brisbane, the skyline ahead gently angled up right to the CBD – dictated by gradients. Had there been skyscrapers or a structure on the scale of Sydney Harbour Bridge in the way, the runways could not have been built. The Queensland system must therefore cover airspace by giving obstacle charts wider cover and stronger backing.

The fly-in fly-out (FIFO)workforce practice is another headache, with the plan identifying 16 such sites. Mining towns were usually removed once the mine ceased operations, but the airports kept running uneconomically or fell into ruin.

The plan supports FIFO airport sites serving projects within 200km, but many OHS experts recommend that airports should be far closer to minimise travelling times before onerous shifts, which means aircraft up to regional jet size – Fokker 70s and BAe 146s – put up to 1,700 seats daily through the new airport in Miles (population 1,900). This could see more FIFO airport sites supported.

Aviation spin-offs from the closure of the Gove refinery and Scherger Immigration Detention Centre, and Mount Isa and Gladstone cutbacks, will be cases for Queensland to watch and participate in. Many people could be employed at future mines and ports, but airports cannot be shifted to provide the needed 737/A320-capable FIFO access.

Hours before Warren Truss, Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, announced there was no support for a trial curfew at Brisbane, a politician called for a full curfew.

Also illustrating the threat to airports, news of a massive development which penetrates far above most climb segments, and a call to move the airport paralleled the release of the 2014 Brisbane Airport Draft Master Plan. Similar threats hang over several new airport plans.

The Queensland statement is a worthy blueprint for a similar national plan that deserves bipartisan support which must cover airspace, curfews and movement caps.