Sydney's Second Airport

[Bernie P]

Originally Posted by Rich W

Richmond would be good for a low budget airport. Well my views could be biased considering I live in the North West and hate paying $$$ for road tolls and sitting in traffic to get to YSSY.

Surely they could build a small terminal separate from the base and share the space perhaps?

Isn't the mountains to the west the major constraint for here ??? I seem to remember this being mentioned (somewhere) before!

[Kieran Wells]

Originally Posted by Bernie Proctor

Isn't the mountains to the west the major constraint for here ??? I seem to remember this being mentioned (somewhere) before!

the mountains are only bout 5km approx from the airforce base. however, they still land some large airforce planes there. Surely A320's(which alot of the LCC's are using at the moment) and the like aren't much bigger...

[Morris Biondi]

Originally Posted by Michael Morrison

Before they get a LCC terminal, they need to lift the artificial cap on runway landings/takeoffs

Well said Michael, I've never understood the 80 movements per hour cap, it should go up to a more realistic 120 per hour, I realise Sydney Airport has always been a hot political issue but surely somebody can have the common sense to realise that a city like Sydney with well over 4 million people and a thriving economy needs a fully functional airport not a handicapped one, regardless of wether we get a second airport or not which by the way comes up as a talking point amongst politicians every now and then, we need to utilise the current one to the max of it's ability.

Only my 2 cents worth anyway.

Morris

[Lukas M]

If a 2nd Airpot was constructed, how many of us would actually prefer to use it over Sydney(YSSY). If it:
-Is miles and miles out of Sydney, its pointless, not pointless for the Sydney population
-The airport needs to be on a train line, because Taxis, Buses take time, and cost to much, so a cheaper fare/regular fare can skyrocket
-If Tiger does eventually use Bankstown, tourists could become lost, and the transport factor again, and I repeat, its great for Sydney Population(as they have cars to and from airport), but for us youth for cant afford mega fares, the 9.95 fare can turn into a $50 fare!

In the end, I will use Sydney Airport, not another proposal, as YSSY is in the perfect location with regards to Transport, and great for Connections (I wouldn't like to connect from one airport to the other)

Again, this is MY opinion, you could have a 100% opposite thought, anyway

[Nick W.]

I guess an issue with a 2nd airport is that sydney is so centralised. Parra has a good CBD, as do other western suburbs, but not enough to warrant a domestic airport around there, like in other cities.

Blue mountains make it a bit tricky to expand so far that both SY and BK become central by default, but it could eventually happen.

Maybe if someone has a few hectares to spare closer to the CBD

[Adam G]

Originally Posted by Morris Biondi

Well said Michael, I've never understood the 80 movements per hour cap, it should go up to a more realistic 120 per hour
Morris

The issue with that is that when they have to drop the flow rate due to the use of 07/25 or ATC shortage or weather issues or any airport incident, the airlines schedules will be thrown into chaos.

You see, SYD gives the slots based on maximum rates - bring on any weather or issues and they reduce the flow rate, causing CTMS (aircraft ground held at departure airport) and airbourne delays.

Most days now there are flow reductions - imagine if the movements per hour was increased - no domestic airline would have decent OTP again!

Before everyone demands increased flow rates, there needs to be some research into how it would be managed - pretty pointless if they allow extra movements but then the airlines have to cancel the flights to deal with the schedule issues reduced flow rates result in.

[Andrew C]

As I understand it the Master Plan for Sydney Airport is due in 2009. It will look out for the next decade, not be due in the next decade.

[Morris Biondi]

Adam,

the points you make are very valid ones, there are ways it could be done but it means using the runways a lot more efficiently, take a simple 1 runway arrival, 1 runway departure system, as used around the world in many airports, I realise the 16L/34R rwy would need an extension but it could handle larger aircraft arrivals as we have witnessed in the past for short periods of time, the extension of that rwy was due to take place in the late nineties but was scrapped for what I imagine would have been political reasons.

It would require some lateral thinking and some determination to make it happen, because unfortunately whenever you say something cannot be done you tend to find lots of reasons for it not to be, my point being, as you say let's look for ways through reasearch of how it can be done rather than saying it is too hard, it's just not going to work.

Morris

[Erik H. Bakke]

Originally Posted by Morris Biondi

Adam,
I realise the 16L/34R rwy would need an extension but it could handle larger aircraft arrivals as we have witnessed in the past for short periods of time, the extension of that rwy was due to take place in the late nineties but was scrapped for what I imagine would have been political reasons.

It would require some lateral thinking and some determination to make it happen, because unfortunately whenever you say something cannot be done you tend to find lots of reasons for it not to be, my point being, as you say let's look for ways through reasearch of how it can be done rather than saying it is too hard, it's just not going to work.

Morris

Extending 16L/34R further out into Port Botany may be extremely difficult to get past the politicians, now that most politicians want to appear to be green.
The option then would be to extend it to the north, but that would involve putting another km or so of GHD underground, putting it in a tunnel under 16L/34R.
Now, with the traffic volumes on the road, I can't see how they can pull that one off. No politician who has even an idea about getting re-elected will want to close off one of the major traffic arteries for an extended period.

The next option would then be to build a second east/west runway. This will be a far easier task, but it would mean putting even more aircraft movements over more suburbs, some wielding considerable political power.

Extending the runway system at Sydney Airport is far from being an impossible task. The task that would be near impossible is getting it approved, as the political consequences of approving it are far worse than the consequences of not approving it.

There are precious few in state and federal government who are able and willing to see further than 3 years ahead. The days of doing massive, rather unpopular projects simply because they need to be done to solve long term issues may be gone. It looks like things only get done if doing so will replace a current bad headline with a good one.

[Morris Biondi]

Erik what you say is very wise and very true, I realise that this is exactly the situation we find ourselves with Sydney Airport, hopefully Macquarie Bank with their power and pull may 1 day be able to get something done, as you say it can be done, just selling it to the people is the hard part.

Morris