Bankstown Master Plan

[Matt-YSBK]

Does anyone have any real insight on the BK master plan. I have heard all sorts of rumor from people being kicked off the airports to re-locations to DOTARS makeing it so hard to get on the air field that all GA will be dead.

I hope it is not as bad as people have said it's a hell of a drive to the gong.

[Area QNH is...]

Matt,

Here is a link from one of the Schoies newsletters. You may have already seen it.

http://www.bankstownairport.com.au/files/02_bnk_mp.pdf

I heard a "rumour" that as operators are forced out through continued price increases, the land will become available for non aviation activity :{

That's just a "rumour" though ;)

[Biggles_in_Oz]

Dunno about insight.
I do know about annual increases in parking fees and annual decreases in discounts for 'pay-in-advance' parking.

It's reached the stage where it is cheaper to park an A/C 1000km away and buy a return RPT fare ex Mascot once per month to visit/fly said A/C !

In their 2002/2003 annual report http://www.bankstownairport.com.au/corporate/CIN030.asp#
they state that The Bankstown Airport Aviation business is one of the few General Aviation businesses in Australia to make a positive profit contribution
and a bit furthur on,
aeronautical revenue has exceeded the costs associated in maintaining and operating aviation related activities on the airport.
Well duhhhh.
If they effectively increase the annual 'pay-in-advance' parking fees by more than 230% in 4 years, obviously they'll 'exceed the cost in maintaining the aviation related activities' in the short term.

Blazes.., apart from occasionally mowing the grass, how much can it actually cost them to provide open-air grass parking ?
Nah.., I'm convinced that BAL and the BaCH consortium appear to value the land to be worth more if it can be transformed into commercial/residential usage than if it is left for aviation purposes.
So yes, GA will be driven out and the pollies will wring their hands and say oh golly gosh.., we didn't expect that to happen when we sold the airports for a pittance all those years ago. !

[DeltaSix]

I'm convinced that BAL and the BaCH consortium appear to value the land to be worth more if it can be transformed into commercial/residential usage than if it is left for aviation purposes.

That is what I have been hearing too.............

They want the likes of ALDI and WOOLIES in the airport and they dont give a rats-arse if GA dies.

I suggested to one operator to move his office to Georges Hall because he was complaining about the rising cost of rent just to maintain his school along Tower Road.
I'm willing to drive to the parking area when ready to fly just to help him out.

I dont know though if that would even keep his operation still financially viable.


DeltaSix

[Matt-YSBK]

Yes i pay more for parking then i do for insurance allmost. It's a little nuts and now there is a mention on the BK website of ASIC cards being required soon.

[Sunfish]

What part of the phrase "Return on Investment" don't you understand?

Once the return on investment of making the place into a shopping mall exceeds the return on investment of running an airport then the airport will immediately and permanently close.

[Like This - Do That]

Haven't looked at the fine print of the lease conditions .... can someone dumb it down to a simple sentence that I can understand?

It's a 50 year deal, right? The lease is for what and to do what and what 'outs' are there? Hoxton I understand - it's on death row. But BK & CN? Must be run as a public use GA friendly airport? Or just an airport, no more descriptive than that?

Oh why oh why the hell did the government sell all three airports to the one group?

What about the future? Could BK businesses band together and look around for a greenfields site? NW like Box Hill or in the west somewhere SE of Penriff? I realise that it would be an ask, but how about a deal with BaCH & the Feds? .... BaCH gets the airport for good, or as much of that GA uses, and in return helps fund a smaller GA-friendly airport elsewhere. GA wins, BaCH gets its mitts on more of the BK land .... everyone wins! Yes? No?

I've just had a butcher's at Clamback & Hennessy's site where Aminta (Order of Australia !!!) has been pontificating this very question in her blog.

Even if you didn't agree with Aminta's take on airspace reform I'm sure you'll find her recent blogs interesting.

Cheers

[Biggles_in_Oz]

Sunfish...
You're lucky that the owners of Moorrabin Airport seem to be not as as anti-aviation as the owners of Bankstown, Camden, (and the soon to be defunct) Hoxton Park airports appear to be.

Yeah.. Return on investment is fine, but Bankstown was an airport with only some non-aviation businesses before all this :mad: privatisation got going.