Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
File Name: f:\1work\1 - nemesis\investigations\1 - not allocated\bankstown-rwy north-south.doc
Warning: airport sell-offs a runaway disaster
Author: Scott Rochfort
Date: 04/03/2006
Words: 582
Source: SMH
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: News and Features
Page: 1
THE sell-off of Sydney's four main airports threatens the viability and safety of general aviation in the city and will create an urban planning disaster that will be "reviled for years", critics have warned.
In the wake of the controversy surrounding the development at Sydney Airport, the state Planning Minister,
Frank Sartor, has criticised the Federal Government for allowing the redevelopment of a 100 hectare nonaviation zone at Bankstown Airport.
He joins a chorus of disapproval from small aviation businesses, who suspect the owners of Bankstown, Hoxton
Park and Camden airports are secretly trying to drive them out in order to develop the land. Flying schools have also warned that the recent closure of a runway and taxiways at Bankstown could compromise safety there.
Developers will start work this month on turning one third of Bankstown Airport into a business, manufacturing and retail park . Approval was given last year by the federal Transport Minister, Warren Truss, who has jurisdiction over the development of federal airport sites.
Given Bankstown and Camden airports - like Sydney Airport - have been privatised on long-term leases, they remain Commonwealth land and are not subject to local or state planning laws.
Hoxton Park , part of the $211 million privatisation of Sydney's three smaller airports, will be closed in 2008 when it reverts to freehold status, and becomes subject to local planning laws.
Yesterday, Mr Sartor said: "This just shows the continual reckless indifference by the Federal Government to state planning laws and state planning policies.
"Their legacy for cities like Sydney will be one that they will be reviled about for years."
The State Government claims the Bankstown development will put an extra 13,000 vehicles on roads around the airport during peak hour, which it claims will cost it an extra $100 million in road upgrades.
"We just are amazed at how cavalier they are," Mr Sartor said. "It just is extraordinary that the Federal
Government for a quick few dollars sells off public land without regard to local planning policies, without the needs of managing a metropolis like Sydney. The buck is all they care about."
The chief executive of Banks-town Airport, Kim Ellis, insists there will be an aviation presence there under the
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South airport's 20-year masterplan.
[Friday, April 10, 2020]
"The runway and taxiway are preserved in the masterplan, and certainly are going to outlive you and me," he said.
Mr Truss added that Banks-town's owners had a "very clear obligation" to maintain aviation at the airport. "If there is evidence of a large-scale deliberate rundown of general aviation activity, the Government issues this warning we will intervene," his spokesman said.
However, the recent doubling of lease payments and non-renewal of leases at the airport has alarmed smaller aviation businesses. "They are trying to bankrupt the tenants," said Katrina Dukats, who is fighting the airport's attempts to nearly triple her lease charges.
Several flying schools have warned that inexperienced pilots risk running into serious trouble if they do not have the use of the north-south runway, especially in poor weather.
But Mr Truss's spokesman said: "There are no real safety concerns. If there were safety concerns, we would not have allowed it. Neither CASA [Civil Aviation Safety Authority] or Air Services have any concerns about this issue."
The chief instructor at Schofields Flying Club, Rodney Hyde, said the upcoming closure of Hoxton Park would leave metropolitan Sydney with only one north-south runway.
"If you have enough fuel you can wade them out but if they are embedded you have no choice but to land," he said.
The developers who strafed the low flyers
Author: Scott Rochfort Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 04/03/2006
Words: 1471
Source: SMH
Section: News and Features
Page: 7
Anger has greeted Bankstown Airport's plan to squeeze out small aviators, writes Scott Rochfort.
IT WAS the sudden appearance of a two-metre fence at Bankstown Airport last December that had some tenants worried.
Not only did the "security" fence cordon off a large chunk of land at the southern half of the airport, it blocked aircraft from using some taxiways that had been in use for decades.
Having already seen a runway's closure and having had their lease fees more than double earlier in the year, many aviation businesses saw it as confirmation that the main priority for Bankstown Airport's new owners did not lie in running an airport.
The subsequent appearance of bulldozers digging up the taxiways in the fenced-off area suggested the owners were far more interested in developing the 104 hectares of land they have deemed "surplus" to the 313-hectare airport's aeronautical needs.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
"The fact that we take off and land here is basically not part of their agenda," said Bill Miller, who has operated his charter business Bankstown Helicopters at the airport since the mid-1980s.
"Aviation is just a nuisance to them. We're just being steamrolled," said Mr Miller, who has seen his rent increase 108 per cent in the past year.
Compounding Mr Miller's troubles is the airport's 20-year masterplan, which was approved by the former federal transport minister, John Anderson, last year. The development plan will quarantine aviation tenants to the airport's north, uprooting dozens of businesses - including Miller's - which are presently located to the south and west of the site.
Once the area is clear, Bankstown Airport will be free to develop the so-called Bankstown Airport Zone, which will include space for retailers, manufacturing, logistics and a business park . The airport has already leased an extra four hectares of land to the transport company Toll Holdings, and says it is talking to several prospective tenants, which include "some government and some private" bodies. It has made no secret of wanting to attract bulky goods retailers, such as the Bunnings and Aldi outlets that occupy the site.
However, the company developing the fenced-off area, BAC Devco, remains coy about its plans. "We're not being specific at the moment about what we are doing in terms of tenancies," said Mark Gray, the NSW manager of Leighton Properties, which is a part-owner of Devco.
The Federal Government sold Sydney's three remaining general aviation airports - Bankstown, Hoxton Park and Camden - for $211 million in November 2003 to a consortium led by the now Mirvac-owned property developer James Fielding.
At the time, the general manager of James Fielding, Greg Paramor, noted how the consortium would control
150 hectares of "extremely attractive development land in strategic locations" and that the company "had some exciting plans".
More than two years on, relations between the owners and the 100-odd aviation businesses at the airport have hit rock bottom. Already faced with soaring fuel prices and high landing charges, some operators reckon the airport is mounting a convert campaign to drive them out of business to free up more space for development.
Bankstown Airport Limited's chief executive, Kim Ellis, made no secret of the fact that some of his long-term tenants were unhappy. He agreed that some smaller aviation businesses at the airport could struggle to survive in the new "market" environment.
"Bankstown is in the middle of the CBD and it's a business airport," he said, noting that it would soon offer incentive packages for businesses to leave. He cites the much larger aviation businesses, Boeing and Hawker
Pacific, as outstanding tenants.
He added that the owners of the airport - Mirvac, Commonwealth Bank and the superannuation trust
Westscheme - planned to make a tidy return on their investment. "I think it was a very, very clever investment," he said.
Ellis also makes no secret of the airport's recent move to almost triple rents paid by some aviation businesses and of the airport's preference to see some operators relocate to Camden. "A lot of them when they arrived here almost paid no rent. Change is a hard thing for them," said Ellis, who argued that the airport's recent push to double rents is a reflection of market prices.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
"They've been subsidised by the Government and now the place has been sold and the place is not being subsidised anymore."
However, some tenants believe BAL is being misleading about the land's value.
Another sore point for operators is that the airport is not renewing some leases. "The asset we acquired for old age is no longer available to us," claimed Katrina Dukats, who said she originally set up her business at
Bankstown on the understanding she would be able to sell it on when she retired.
Dukats said she believed when she acquired the land during government ownership that, although it was not freehold, it would be hers in perpertuity .
But Ellis said there was always a "caveat emptor" when people built businesses on leased land. "There's always a degree of uncertainty when a lease ends: will the landlord renew?"
Aircraft operators, however, argue the uncertainty only came when the airport fell into private hands.
One non-profit flying club already forced to relocate to Bankstown after Schofields Airport was closed in the
1990s reckons the rent rises will send it bankrupt. Schofields Flying Club's head instructor, Rodney Hyde, said the rent rises will mean an extra $14,000 in costs a year for his club, which the club cannot afford. "We did well last year, we made a small loss," he said.
Perhaps the best illustration of the rapid decline of aviation at Bankstown is the number of aircraft movements, which has halving since the late-1980s.
Aviation enterpreneur Dick Smith laid the blame not on the owners but on the Federal Government for selling the airport. "They've unintentionally destroyed a very viable general aviation industry because they have no policy," he said.
Bankstown City Council is also worried about the airport's redevelopment, given that it needs development approval only from the Federal Government since it is still Commonwealth land. Like Sydney Airport,
Bankstown has been leased out for 99 years.
Bankstown's Mayor, Helen Westwood, said her relations with the airport owners had been cordial. But she admitted council has little power to stop development. "Our concern is that the development is appropriate for our area," she said.
"What we don't want to see is development there that takes away from our existing commercial centres,"
Westwood said. She said she was yet to see evidence of the airport following Sydney Airport's lead and developing a shopping centre.
The council is also concerned about the impact planned earthworks at the airport will have on the flood plain in the areas.
Westwood said the Federal Government did not divert any of the money it earned from the sale of Bankstown into the surrounding infrastructure. Roads around the airport, for instance, could feel the strain of more trucks.
Short leases pull retirement rug from under their feet
SINCE 1982 Dieter Siewert has built one of Bankstown Airport's largest general aviation businesses.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
He calculates he has invested up to $5 million building up his air charter business Airtex, which has 50 employees and 18 aircraft. But the new private owners of Bankstown Airport have renewed the 20-year lease on the land on which he built his maintenance hangars for only three years, and Mr Siewert, 63, says his superannuation plans are ruined.
"It's stuffed my life. It has totally destroyed me," he says. "I worked for 20 years building a business. It is a very good business and we can't sell it as I don't know where we're going to be in three years' time."
Like many operators at Bankstown, he says he understood when he set up his business under government ownership that he could sell it and transfer his lease when he decided it was time to retire. Mr Siewert, whose business is in the area of the airport designated for non-aviation development, says: "I can't start all over again by building another building that I may be kicked off again in another three years."
Aminta Hennessy has been a flight instructor at Bankstown since 1967, and founded the flying school
Clamback & Hennessy in 1981. Hennessy reckons she has spent $2 million building hangars and acquiring aircraft, and is now "left with nothing" for retirement, given she too will eventually be pushed off her land.
"I can't see aviation as a good business for me," she says.
HAPPY LANDINGS
Camden airport
Hoxton Park airport
Bankstown airport
Cost of privatising three airports $211 million. (November 2003)
BANKSTOWN
Lease 45 years plus 49 year extension
Estimated development costs $162 million, 313 hectares
Aviation related land 142 hectares
Business zone 99 hectares
Employment zone 52 hectares
HOXTON PARK
Estimated development costs $79 million, 82 heactares
Estimated developable non-aviation related land 60 hectares
Airport will be closed and revert to freehold land in October 2008.
CAMDEN Lease 45 years plus 49 year extension for 196 hectares Aviation related land 100 hectares
Business zone 83 hectares
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South
Sell-off means second airport may never fly
Author: Matt Wade and, Anne Davies
Date: 10/04/2003
Words: 464
[Friday, April 10, 2020]
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Section: News And Features
Page: 6
Fresh doubts about a second major airport for Sydney were raised yesterday when the Federal Government dumped plans to upgrade Bankstown Airport to ease air traffic congestion.
The Government announced details of its planned sale of Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park airports this year in the last stage of its multi-billion-dollar airport sell-off.
The acting Transport Minister, Wilson Tuckey, said turmoil in the aviation industry after the September 11 terrorist attacks and the collapse of Ansett meant that Bankstown Airport would not need to be upgraded as a condition of its sale.
The Government had flagged plans for Bankstown to take overflow traffic from Sydney Airport, especially aircraft serving regional areas.
Its Bankstown decision will ease fears in nearby areas about increased aircraft noise, but it will anger residents in a swathe of suburbs under Sydney Airport's flightpaths who had been hoping for noise relief.
The Government has indicated that it will not reconsider a second Sydney international airport until at least
2005. But Government sources said yesterday that upheavals in the aviation industry since 2001 had ``changed thinking" on the issue.
The sale will also reshape urban development in western Sydney by clearing the way for a major building at
Hoxton Park Airport. It dramatically increases the value of the site by allowing it to be turned into a new housing estate or business park , or a combination of both, in five years.
`` Hoxton Park airport will be sold with a shortened airport lease of five years with the land then converting to freehold title," the Government's statement said.
The land's value would depend on its zoning, but it could be worth well over $1 billion if residential development was permitted.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
An area south of the airport is already earmarked to be subdivided into 1600 new housing lots and Liverpool
Council is likely to support rezoning. ``After the lease expires we would prefer to see it rezoned for economic or employment purposes," a spokeswoman said yesterday.
Because of the airport's proximity to the planned Orbital road being constructed around the fringe of Sydney, there will be pressure from groups such as Western Sydney Economic Development Board to convert it into an industrial park .
However, the loss of the airport has horrified the aviation community. ``I can't believe the Government would do such a thing," said leading aviator Dick Smith. It would be a ``catastrophe" for the industry because it would lose an important training facility.
There may also be another hiccup for developers the airport has an interim listing on the National Estate because it still retains traces of its World War II heritage, including the original airstrip surface and hideouts in case of a
Japanese attack on Sydney.
Fears rising costs will ground trainee pilots
Author: Scott Rochfort Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 16/09/2006
Words: 604
Source: SMH
Section: News and Features
Page: 3
LEARNING to fly has become so expensive that Australia faces a big shortage of pilots, flying schools say.
Foreign pilots will have to be imported for commercial and emergency services within a few years, they warn.
Pilots have to pay at least $60,000 to obtain a commercial licence - with no guarantee of an airline job - and aviation groups say a planned increase in control tower and pilot licence fees will make matters worse.
"In a very short space of time we're going to have a very acute shortage of pilots in this country," said Col
Rodgers, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
According to some estimates strong growth in the Asian airline industry will lead to a shortage of 10,000 commercial airline pilots in the region by 2010. That does not include a predicted shortage of flight instructors, charter pilots and regional airline pilots.
Ray Clamback, who has run a flying school at Bankstown Airport for about 40 years, said: "There's been a 50 or 60 per cent increase in the past two years. It wasn't long ago you would ... pay $100 an hour to fly. Now we pay $170 and it drives people away."
Flying schools have been hit hard by rising fuel costs, and some have warned they could go broke if the Civil
Aviation Safety Authority and Air Services Australia proceed with plans to raise charges.
"The flying training industry on the east coast of Australia is on the verge of collapse," said Keith Robey, of
Phoenix Aero Club at Hoxton Park Airport.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
Mr Robey, whose club sold an aircraft to pay for a recent rent increase, blames the Federal Government for allowing the new private operators of Sydney's three main general aviation airports - Bankstown, Hoxton Park and Camden - to double rents.
"The Government's policy is absolutely ruinous," he said.
Mr Robey said it now cost $460 for a basic student licence. This did not include other fees, such as the $130 to process a medical certificate through the authority.
"If we discourage planning to fly, soon our supply of pilots will dry up and you soon will see your planes being flown by foreigners."
The senior instructor at Basair, Darrin Ward, said the cost of operating a small aircraft out of Bankstown had risen 143 per cent since the airport was privatised in 2003. Rising costs were undermining the country's reputation as the main flight training location in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
"The problem we're now finding is that Australia is being taken off the international market because of the price increases."
Many foreign students were now choosing New Zealand or Canada over Australia, he said.
"The Government, quite frankly, is quite mad."
Air traffic charges are set to rise 20 per cent in the next two years, and Mr Ward argued that instructors - usually paid $30 for each hour in the air - will earn less than the air traffic charges for each flight.
When many in the industry expressed their anger recently after the fee rises were announced, the authority and
Air Services said the increases were needed to meet their costs. But critics say they are paying higher fees to inefficient bureaucracies.
The aviation identity and entrepreneur Dick Smith, who learned to fly at Bankstown in his early 30s, said that
Air Services operated air traffic towers in the US at half the cost it does in Australia. It cost eight times more to get a pilot's licence in Australia than in the US, he said.
Fear of pilots shortage
Author: Scott Rochfort Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 16/09/2006 Section: News and Features
Words: 420
Source: SMH
Page: 3
LEARNING to fly has become so expensive that Australia faces a big shortage of pilots, flying schools say.
Foreign pilots will have to be imported for commercial and emergency services within a few years, they warn.
Pilots have to pay at least $60,000 to obtain a commercial licence - with no guarantee of an airline job - and aviation groups say a planned increase in control tower and pilot licence fees will make matters worse.
"In a very short space of time we're going to have a very acute shortage of pilots in this country," said Col
Rodgers, of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
According to some estimates strong growth in the Asian airline industry will lead to a shortage of 10,000 commercial airline pilots in the region by 2010. That does not include a predicted shortage of flight instructors, charter pilots and regional airline pilots.
Ray Clamback, who has run a flying school at Bankstown Airport for about 40 years, said: "There's been a 50 or 60 per cent increase in the past two years. It wasn't long ago you would ... pay $100 an hour to fly. Now we pay $170 and it drives people away."
Flying schools have been hit hard by rising fuel costs, and some have warned they could go broke if the Civil
Aviation Safety Authority and Air Services Australia proceed with plans to raise charges. "The flying training industry on the east coast of Australia is on the verge of collapse," said Keith Robey, of Phoenix Aero Club at
Hoxton Park Airport.
Mr Robey, whose club sold an aircraft to pay for a recent rent increase, blames the Federal Government for allowing the new private operators of Sydney's three main general aviation airports - Bankstown, Hoxton Park and Camden - to double rents.
"The Government's policy is absolutely ruinous," he said.
Mr Robey said it now cost $460 for a basic student licence. This did not include other fees, such as the $130 to process a medical certificate through the authority.
"If we discourage planning to fly, soon our supply of pilots will dry up and you soon will see your planes being flown by foreigners."
An instructor at Basair, Darrin Ward, said the cost of operating a small aircraft out of Bankstown had risen 143 per cent since the airport was privatised in 2003. Rising costs were undermining the country's reputation as the main flight training location in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
Industrial interest heads south-west
Author: Carolyn Cummins Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 22/11/2003 Section: Property
Words: 635
Source: SMH
Page: 70
The sale last week of the Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park airports, known as the Sydney Basin Airports, for $211 million to the BaCH Airports Consortium has ignited great interest in the surrounding area from industrial players.
The winning bid has been sponsored by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the James Fielding Group and
Toll Holdings.
Equity investment for the bid has been provided by the Fielding group, Westscheme and Commonwealth
Investments (a wholly owned subsidiary of the Commonwealth Bank). In addition, the purchase has been funded by both infrastructure and property debt provided by the Commonwealth Bank.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
This sale completes the Federal Government's successful airports privatisation program. Proceeds of more than
$8.5 billion have been used to reduce net Commonwealth debt.
In its latest report on the South Western Industrial Market, The Big Picture, CB Richard Ellis's experts say that availability of vacant industrial land in the area has tightened dramatically in the past 12 months.
The report, focusing on the M5 Motorway from Padstow to Smeaton Grange incorporating Bankstown,
Liverpool, Campbelltown and Camden council areas, says there has been strong take-up of land by all segments of the market, driven by the relative affordability of sites and greatly improved infrastructure. Tod Anderson , associate director of industrial services at CB Richard Ellis's Sydney West office in Parramatta, said much of the remaining supply was held by a handful of groups which effectively controlled the market to the extent there were few opportunities for new players.
``Our analysis indicates vacant industrial sites with a land area greater than one hectare totals about 500 hectares, of which 64 per cent is held by only seven groups, such as ING, Macqaurie Goodman, Stockland and
AMP Henderson, as well as government bodies such as Landcom and the Department of Defence," Mr
Anderson said.
``Much of [this] is spread evenly along the M5 Motorway with most suburbs accounting for 5-10 per cent of stock with the exception of the Smeaton Grange and Moorebank industrial areas, where there is a greater availability.
``There is a critical shortage of sites to meet owner-occupier demand, as evidenced by an average increase in land values of 30-35 per cent a year over the past five years, for small- to medium-sized lots in the
Campbelltown and Camden council areas as one example, and there is a specific need for releases in the
Bankstown, Hoxton Park and Moorebank industrial precincts."
He said the report also indicated much stronger interest in pre-lease, purpose-built facilities in the region from industrial companies located across metropolitan Sydney. In the past year close to 75,000 square metres of floor space has been pre-committed by Toll IPEC, AusDoc, Astron, Bridgestone, Grace, Esselte and Torin Industries.
``Many in the industry believe that much of the future demand for the south-west will generate from South
Sydney as the dynamics of Alexandria, Mascot and Botany change.
``However many of the recent pre-leases have been sourced from broader afield including Villawood, Kings
Park , Smithfield and Wetherill Park , suggesting that the development of the M7 Motorway will have as much of an impact on the south-west as the extension to the M5 some years ago.
``We feel that much of the land offered for pre-lease and capable of providing a 10,000 square metres building or larger is almost exclusively controlled by institutions, whose holdings make up 20 per cent of the remaining supply, and while there is limited direct competition in particular precincts, there is strong competition generally across the south-west keeping rents in check.
``However with land values for medium-sized sites now over $300/square metre Liverpool and Bankstown and over $175/square metre in Campbelltown and Camden, astute companies would be locking into pre-leases now."
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
CBA wins airports tender
Author: Cosima Marriner Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 15/11/2003 Section: Business
Words: 304
Source: SMH
Page: 46
A consortium led by the Commonwealth Bank has bought the Bankstown, Camden and Hoxton Park airports for $211 million.
The Government announced on Friday it had sold the airports known as the Sydney Basin Airports to the BaCH
Airports Consortium following a competitive tender process. The Commonwealth Bank, James Fielding Group and Toll Holdings sponsored the consortium's winning bid.
James Fielding, Westscheme Pty Ltd and CBA's investment subsidiary funded the purchase. CBA also provided infrastructure and property debt as funding and acted as financial adviser for the transaction.
``The purchase price represents excellent value for the three airports," BaCH said in a statement, citing both the aviation opportunities, and potential to further develop the sites.
The sale completes the Government's program of privatising the country's airports. Finance Minister Nick
Minchin said the Government had raised $8.5 billion by selling off the airports and used the money to reduce
Commonwealth debt.
Labor called on the Government to spend the proceeds of the Sydney Basin Airports sale on infrastructure.
``These are the proceeds from the sale of public infrastructure that should be returned to public infrastructure," transport spokesman Martin Ferguson said.
The Transport Minister, John Anderson, said the airport operators would have to prepare draft plans for the airports within 12 months after the completion of the sale. ``This will ensure that there can be no major developments at the airports without full public consultation," Mr Anderson said.
Camden airport is expected to remain unchanged as a centre for recreation aviation activities. Hoxton Park has been sold with a shortened five to seven-year airport lease. When the lease expires, the freehold title will transfer to the lease owner, who will then decide the best use for the site.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
Fears of conflict, closure
Author: By LINDA MORRIS Transport Writer Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
Date: 22/05/1996 Section: NEWS AND FEATURES
Words: 359 Page: 4
The option of where to place Sydney's second airport could affect the operations of the east-west runway and
Australia's busiest general aviation airport, it was claimed yesterday.
The 1985 draft environmental impact study prepared by Kinhill Stearns, which examined Holsworthy, concluded that Bankstown Airport would need to close as the approach paths would pass overhead and conflict with Bankstown's operations.
Limitations would also be placed on the operations of nearby Hoxton Park airport, and airspace restrictions around Lucas Heights would have a significant effect on the operations of Holsworthy, preventing any aircraft flying directly overhead.
A spokesman for the Civil Air Operations Officers' Association, representing air traffic controllers, said a second airport 24 kilometres from Mascot was likely to affect its operations and could restrict departures off the east-west runway.
"Badgerys would have some effect on Sydney anyway and Holsworthy, being half the distance from Sydney, would have a bit more of an effect, just how much I couldn't say," he said.
"But the approach path to runway 07 passes right over the top of Holsworthy. That could restrict departures to the west."
The technical director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots' Association, Mr Bill Hamilton, said Bankstown
Airport would not need to close. And international handling practices would allow the operation of Holsworthy and Sydney Airport, including the east-west runway, with only minor changes to flight tracks.
If the runways were located to the south of the airport on a north-south alignment, flight paths could cross approach paths into Bankstown Airport but at sufficient height not to erode safety margins.
Were the runways located in the northern section, closer to Bankstown Airport, Mr Hamilton said, light aircraft would need to fly lower for longer at heights of about 1,500 feet rather than the usual 2,000 feet to ensure proper separation.
The executive director of the Overnight Airfreight Operators' Association, Mr Dick Creek, said operators were nervous about talk of Bankstown closing.
Bankstown is the busiest general aviation facility in Australia, handling 400,000 aircraft movements each year.
Mr Creek said the airport was a major hub for air freight operations and, with the future of Hoxton Park and
Camden hemmed in, closure of Bankstown would be a catastrophe for the industry.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South
Senate: Bankstown Airport Wednesday, 8 November 2006 SENATE 161
[Friday, April 10, 2020]
QUESTIONS ON NOTICE (Question No. 2379)
Senator O’Brien asked the Minister representing the Minister for Transport and Regional Services, upon notice, on 15 August 2006:
With reference to the closure of runway 18/36 at Bankstown Airport:
(1) What consultations were undertaken before the decision by Bankstown Airport Limited to close runway
18/36.
160 SENATE Wednesday, 8 November 2006
QUESTIONS ON NOTICE
(2) Was the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) consulted on the closure of runway 18/36.
(3) Did CASA commission a report on the impact of the closure either internally or externally; if so, when and who provided the report.
(4) Do weather conditions affecting runway 11/29 ever result in closure of this runway to air traffic.
(5) Do weather conditions ever make runway 11/29 unsuitable for landings by any type of aircraft; if so:
(a) can details be provided of any such occurrences; and (b) what alternative arrangements have been made to ensure that the safety of aircraft operating out of Bankstown Airport will not be compromised.
(6) Will the proposed closure in 2008 of Hoxton Park Airport impact on any alternative arrangements for aircraft operating from Bankstown Airport.
(7) Following the closure of Hoxton Park Airport, other than Sydney Airport, what alternative arrangements have been made for a north/south runway in the Sydney basin; if no arrangements, other than Sydney Airport, exist or are planned, what impact are landings at Sydney Airport likely to have on the operation of that airport.
Senator Ian Campbell
—The Minister for Transport and Regional Services has provided the following answer to the honourable senator’s question:
(1) Bankstown Airport Limited (BAL) undertook significant public consultation prior to the closure of runway
18/36 in July 2005. The runway closure was widely canvassed within the general aviation industry and the local community, notably in drafting its 2005 Master Plan, which required a 90- day public consultation period.
A survey by BAL of over 1,300 general aviation operators using the airport found that they used runway 18/36 for less than 1% of all activity.
(2) Yes.
(3) No. CASA has advised that no report has been commissioned, though it has considered internally the potential safety system issues raised in respect of trainee and low-time pilots operating from Bankstown Airport in the event of emerging adverse meteorological conditions, given the closure of the north-south runway at
Bankstown, and the forthcoming closure of the alternate aerodrome at Hoxton Park. CASA notes it is the professional responsibility of pilots to ensure they have planned their flight to ensure a safe landing, taking into
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020] account expected meteorological conditions, including wind shifts. For trainee pilots, CASA expects that flying schools would apply appropriate restrictions on students using Bankstown aerodrome, to take account of forecast adverse wind conditions.
(4) No. Airservices Australia has not closed 11/29 due to weather conditions.
(5) Airservices Australia has advised that the pilot in command of an aircraft has the responsibility to determine whether to land on a particular runway, taking into account the aircraft’s operating parameters and pilot experience. In common with all aerodromes in Australia, there are occasions when pilots decide not to select particular runways due to adverse weather conditions. a. Specific details of occurrences are not known to Airservices Australia. b. In common with all aerodromes in Australia, pilots will request information in relation to alternative locations when weather conditions are not suitable at their primary destination. The response from air traffic control will depend on the particular circumstances, including providing information on other local airfields.
The pilot in command will then decide the appropriate course of action.
(6) Airservices Australia has advised that from an air traffic control perspective, there is no operational impact for aircraft operating from Bankstown Airport.
(7) There are a number of aerodromes in the Sydney area other than Sydney Airport with runways that could be used on the rare occasions when the weather is unsuitable to land at Bankstown. Camden, Wedderburn,
Warnervale, Mittagong, Wollongong and The Oaks aerodromes have all been identified.
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Subject: Bankstown/ RWY North-South [Friday, April 10, 2020]
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