And as said before, there's no political will nor capability to do it. The mob currently running the show are having a hard enough time building a passenger terminal and a serviceable runway as it is.. there's no way they could handle throwing GA into the mix - they'd go into meltdown!
Besides, even if they did, the landing fees and fuel surcharge would make this the most expensive GA airport in Australia.
Originally Posted by
Ixixly
If we're going to direct any efforts surrounding this I'd recommend that telling them to consider Bankstown in their planning of the Airports design or operations is utter folly and will lead nowhere. Instead, we should be pressuring the Government to put together funding for the re-location of the various organisations that call Bankstown home. This only seems fair, they are removing their place of operations to support what is a financial asset being created. It's not too dissimilar to the Government deciding to build a highway through a person's home, they don't just turn up one day with bulldozers and tell them too bad, they buy it at a "Fair rate".
There's no way the NSW Government is going to pay anything to relocate anyone away from Bankstown.. they'd rather it die naturally than do that.
But don't underestimate SMA - they've spent quite a few $$$ lately improving infrastructure around the place and have enough government support and enough established on-airport leaseholders wanting to stay that Bankstown, as an airport, isn't going away anytime soon. It may get smaller if they dig up a runway or two and sell the land to pay their bills and may eventually disappear if WSI proves as popular as some claim, but that's a really big maybe and isn't for decades yet anyway.