From the EIS
19.5.5 Economic impacts to Bankstown and Camden airports
Due to the introduction of flight paths for WSI, there will be a change in the
overall airspace configuration within the Sydney Basin available for Camden and
Bankstown Airports. According to Aeria Management Group (the airport operator),
both airports will contribute around $1.6 billion and around 10,000 jobs by
2024/2025. Transport for NSW (2022) and .id Consulting Pty Ltd (2022) indicate
there are around 3,500 jobs at Bankstown Airport, and around 350 people work in
retail and food services on the fringe sites.
Both airports provide essential flying training capacity in the context of the
global shortfall in pilots. Pilot shortages can constrain the economy with
wide ranging impacts. Flying training at Bankstown and Camden airports provides
capacity for more than 600 student pilots per annum. The trainee pilots use 3
flying training areas within the vicinity of WSI. With the introduction of the
proposed airspace design, these flying training areas are anticipated to be
restricted to the residual portions of the flying training areas as well as 2
possible areas to the north and south of the Sydney Basin. This means that the
pilots would need to be travel further to reach the new flying training areas
which would translate to increased “transit” flight durations, extended
training schedules and increased costs including increased flying training
times and increased fuel maintenance costs.
The majority of training flights for the CASA Recreational Pilot Licence (RPL)
are based on a one hour start-up to shutdown sortie length. According to
operators at Bankstown Airport this is likely to increase to 1.2 hours due to
longer transit times to and from what is anticipated to be the new training
area resulting in a marginal cost of $91.80 per lesson. Training flights for
the issue of a CASA Private Pilot Licence (PPL) would increase flight time by
around 10 per cent at a marginal cost of $50.60 per lesson. Joy flight sorties
would face an increase in flying time of approximately 20 per cent at a
marginal cost of $222.
This assessment has assumed that half of all aircraft movements (being around
150,000 per annum) are affected by extending flight times at an average cost of
$100, resulting in around $15 million in additional costs each year. This would
increase over time with rising demand at around one per cent per annum
To mitigate the impact the strategy will be
DITRDCA will continue to consult with aerodrome
operators and airspace users at Bankstown and
Camden Airports regarding airspace requirements in
order to minimise risks and associated economic costs.
1. Assuming their estimates are valid, my reading is they are saying the costs passed on to ab initio training will be of the order of $90 per flight hour (and increase hours to achieve qualifications by 20%.) Students will walk away - why pay more for slower and longer training? Why pay more to spend 20% more time in flight transit, not actually doing the lesson? Why pay more, to rack up 20% more hours to get a licence - needing more log book hours to get your basic qualifications is not a selling point.
2. I assume the mitigating strategy they propose to address these issues (continued consultation) will be the same as the consultation they say they have done with operators leading up to this... ie... nil (other than to inform them of the pre-decided outcome).
I am not commenting on the need for the new airport or the value it can bring to the overall economy - I can see why they want this to proceed but I believe it will not only bring benefits, but also nasty financial impacts to many existing operators, including the closure of businesses. I doubt YSBK can survive as a GA training aerodrome and YSCN is not in a position to take up any slack due to its inherent physical constraints. I cannot see how these impacts can be mitigated.
All my personal opinion.