Green Fields

Could it happen in Sydney’s West? Probably not to that extent but one thing is certain, in the wake of the final environmental report on Badgerys, released in September, and with construction set to ramp up for that mid-2025 opening, arguments that raged over the need for a second airport for at least four decades are unlikely to end. There will certainly be winners and losers, although a major study conducted by the Department of Infrastructure just before the recent Federal election showed an overwhelming number of Western Sydney residents now back the new airport, convinced the economic boost for the region will far outweigh any negative impacts. Nevertheless, fierce anti-airport campaigns continue among a minority of residents.

As reported in last month’s Australian Aviation a revised plan will see aircraft land and takeoff to the south-west during the early hours of the morning, significantly reducing the number of residents exposed to aircraft noise in densely populated areas such as St Marys.

But it concedes this will “result in more people experiencing high noise impacts” in rural-residential areas to its south-west such as Greendale and parts of Silverdale. The report found about 4,000 people would be exposed to noise above 60 decibels – normal conversation level – five times a night, compared with 48,000 if planes landed and took off in a south-west to north-east direction.

Of course, there will be no cap as at Sydney airport, which has a cap of 80 movements an hour. With a single runway, the initial development will see Badgerys cater for 10 million passengers annually within five years with hourly movements averaging just 21.

So what has been the experience elsewhere? Across Asia there have been numerous examples of cities tussling with the issues surrounding a second airport. Most of the big new hubs have become the city’s major airport while the old airport has become a secondary facility. But then in places like Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Seoul, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur the plan has been to spend billions of dollars on an expansive new hub, not one with a single runway and a slow ramp-up. In Sydney, Kingsford Smith will remain the principal hub – at least for the foreseeable future – and Badgerys will be a secondary airport.

In Thailand, Bangkok’s Don Muang International Airport, one of the world’s oldest commercial airports – it opened as a Royal Thai Air Force base in 1914 and operated commercial flights since 1924 – was closed in 2006 following the opening of the new Suvarnabhumi Airport. But after much debate about what should happen to Don Muang it was renovated and re-opened in 2007 to take overflow traffic from the new airport, which had quickly approached its capacity. The problem, of course, was that none of the big airlines wanted any of their flights moved back out of the new facility and Don Muang became a hub for regional commuter services and a de facto low-cost carrier hub. It is currently the main hub for budgeteers Nok Air, Thai AirAsia, Thai Lion Air, and Orient Thai Airlines. In 2015, it became the world’s largest low-cost carrier airport.

It was a similar story in neighbouring Malaysia when the new Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at Sepang was opened in 1998, built to replace the former Subang International Airport (now Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport). When KLIA was completed the main passenger terminal at Subang was actually demolished and the remaining terminal building redeveloped by Malaysia Airports as a specialist centre for turboprop and charter aircraft, surrounded by a residential area and a business park. There were plans to further develop Subang as an LCC hub but these were dropped in the face of protests from local residents who, having just gotten rid of jet engine noise, didn’t want to see it back.

Subang has been re-purposed to serve general aviation as well as turboprop domestic and international flights. It is currently the hub for turboprop services operated by Malaysia Airlines subsidiary Firefly, Berjaya Air and Malindo Air, as well as cargo operator Transmile. LCCs now operate from a new terminal – KLIA 2 – at the main airport.

Of course, there will be no cap as at Sydney airport.

One success story in North Asia has been in South Korea, where the new Seoul-Incheon International Airport opened for business in early 2001. It replaced Gimpo International Airport as Seoul’s main international hub. But Gimpo has remained in operation, now serving mostly domestic destinations as well as shuttle flights to alternate airports in China, Japan, and Taiwan. Last year it handled 23 million passengers, making it the third largest airport in Korea after Inchon and Jeju International Airport on the popular holiday island of Jeju, off Korea’s south coast.

In Japan, Tokyo has long had two airports, Narita and Haneda. Haneda was for many years solely a domestic facility, while Narita struggled to cope with international growth. As at Sydney Airport, it took years of protest before a second runway was built and dozens of international airlines simply couldn’t get slots at Narita. In recent times, however, Haneda has opened up to international traffic. Much closer to central Tokyo – from Narita it takes an hour in a fast train or up to two hours by road – Haneda has become extremely popular with foreign carriers and the two Tokyo hubs are now successful operations.

Despite China’s reputation for speedy construction, Beijing has also suffered planning pains for its second airport. Take Beijing Daxing International Airport (BDIA), 50km south of the Chinese capital. Construction began in 2014, seven years later than planned because authorities couldn’t decide on a site. It is scheduled to open in 2019 and will support the existing Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA).

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced in September that national carrier Air China and its Star Alliance partners will continue operating from BCIA while China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, together with SkyTeam partners that currently operate from BCIA will move to BDIA. Officials said they will inform other carriers operating at BCIA, including China’s fourth biggest, Hainan Airlines, whether or not they have to move at a later stage. BCIA, built to handle 72 million passengers annually, last year handled 93. 1 million.

Under the government’s master plan, BDIA will hold enough capacity to handle 45 million passengers by 2020, 72 million in 2025 and 120 million in the longer term. Plans include a provision for nine runways.

Shanghai’s second airport, Pudong International, took only two years to build and was opened in 1999. Before this, Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport was the city’s primary airport, but during the 1990s was unable to expand to meet growing demand because the surrounding urban area was developing significantly. Pudong quickly became the major hub while Hongqiao today mainly serves domestic and regional flights.

Of course it is almost impossible to actually compare any of these developments with what is happening in Western Sydney. The region may be developing and it may be the centre of Sydney’s population growth but it is not Beijing, Shanghai or South-East Asia. These places are experiencing unprecedented growth in air traffic, particularly in the low-cost carrier sector. They also have rapidly emerging middle classes with the cash to spend on travel. Even when greenfield airports are built they are operating near full capacity within a short period of time. Some countries, like China, can also simply order airlines to move. If Badgerys is to have any chance of success it must have a fast train. Despite congestion at Kingsford Smith International, major carriers won’t be much interested in moving to Badgerys. Unless there is a high speed rail link between Mascot and the new airport it is difficult to see Qantas having much enthusiasm for a major move. It wants its international and domestic networks to link at the same airport. Foreign carriers also find Mascot far more convenient for their customers because of its locality close to the city centre.

It is far more likely that Badgerys will evolve into a hub for budget operators Jetstar and Tigerair, perhaps some foreign LCCs as well as cargo, similar to what has happened in Bangkok.

Australia simply doesn’t have the large number of LCCs operating as in South-East Asia and other parts of the region. In countries like Thailand, Korea and the Philippines more than half the traffic is now flown by LCCs. Even in Singapore, a major “big airline” hub, more than a quarter of the traffic is budget. Turboprop operators could also go to Badgerys, freeing up slots for the heavy traffic. But clearly, trying to force that would be politically dangerous and evoke screams of protest from rural travelers.

What will be a key to the success of Badgerys is how the debate over rail connectivity pans out. While the state and federal governments are due to release a discussion paper in the near future outlining a range of options for rail in Western Sydney, including to the airport, these plans do not provide for a rail link to the airport when it opens in 2025 because “the road network upgrades currently underway or planned have been assessed as adequate”.

This is ridiculous. If Badgerys is to have any chance of success it must have a fast train connecting it not only to Kingsford Smith but also to the Sydney CBD and Parramatta.

It is interesting to note that when Malaysia’s KLIA was first opened the rail link from Kuala Lumpur went only half way to the airport, with passengers having to bus the rest of the way. There was an outcry of protest over the inconvenience it caused to travelers and lengthy time it took to get to the airport. Today, a fast train goes all the way to KLIA and it is one of the region’s most efficient airport transport systems.

Nevertheless, after years of debate, there now seems little doubt that Sydney does need a second airport. As NSW Minister for Urban Infrastructure Paul Fletcher wrote in an opinion piece in The Daily Telegraph recently, Western Sydney will be the country’s third largest city if it stood alone and an airport is critical for its economic and employment growth.

“In 20 years’ time there will be another million people living in Western Sydney. When Western Sydney Airport opens in the mid-2020s, for around two million people it will be closer and more convenient than Kingsford Smith Airport at Mascot. Just as important, Western Sydney Airport will be a jobs magnet. ” However, there are still those with doubts, or at least those who believe not enough is being done to give the airport every chance of success. An influential group of local councils declared in June that a strategic approach was needed to developing the airport precinct and surrounding areas.

“If we are putting our hopes for increased employment in Badgerys Creek, then it must be more than just an airport. It needs to be an aerotropolis,” said Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils president Tony Hadchiti.

An infrastructure plan for a game-changing airport should include more than just roads and the project needed to be “more than an unregulated runway in a sheep paddock”, he said.

In a 2015 report, the NSW Business Chamber commissioned a report from a US expert on the “aerotropolis” concept that argued that a new planning strategy would be required for a western Sydney “aerotropolis”. Examples of the concept include the areas around Amsterdam’s Schiphol, Incheon in South Korea and Dallas-Fort Worth in Texas. There is also ongoing argument over whether Badgerys should be curfew free, a 24/7 operational airport. Meanwhile, Sydney isn’t the only place where a second airport continues to be a matter of debate. Back in Canada, as Montreal’s Mirabel stutters on in its role as an airport white elephant, Toronto authorities, like their counterparts in Sydney, have spent years mulling over a second airport.

It’s proposed new international airport is Pickering Airport, which would be built about 65km east of Toronto Pearson International Airport. Intended to serve the Greater Toronto Area – somewhat similar to the situation at Badgerys – it would be operated by the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). In 2004, the estimated cost of building the airport was reported to be approximately $2 billion, and it was anticipated that, by 2032, the airport would be handling up to 11. 9 million passengers annually.

The concept, first developed in the late 1960s, was shelved in the 1970s when the provincial partner in the enterprise, the Government of Ontario, declared it would not build the roads or sewers needed to service the site.

In an announcement in June 2013, Canada’s Federal government reaffirmed its intention to hold land on the site for a future airport, stating that a needs assessment study concluded the airport would be needed within the 2027-2037 timeframe. But by July last year half the site had been added to a National Urban Park, with the government announcing its intention to use the remainder of the site for economic development, including a “potential” future airport. But it said that no decisions had been made on development or timing of a potential future airport.

Sound familiar? At least in Sydney the decision has been made and an airport is being built. What it’s future holds remains to be seen.

If Badgerys is to have any chance of success it must have a fast train.