I popped along to the meeting at BK see what it was all about. There were about 50 people present representing the various operators at BK. The guys from ASA did their little presentation on why its all happening, and what plans they have for the future - such as $4m for a brand new tower at BK etc. ?!?!
After that the floor was open and lots of people made their point.
1. It was pointed out that the prices are completely unrealistic, and there won't be a need for a new tower as there won't be an airport
2. ASA agree that the prices cannot happen as the industry can't take it, and something must happen.
3. Some of the ideas were
* Remove the services. eg close the tower at BK and CN. Closing BK tower is dependent on CASA who decide whether an field needs a tower, CN has less movements but the safety case done last year found most movements occur on weekends so the tower remains open then. With the closure of Hoxton obviously BK and CN will see some increase in the movements.
* Subsidies - Tell the government to bloody pay up. Maybe a change of government would help...
* Some other pricing policy
* Network Pricing - Instead of doing the charge per location - apply the same charges everywhere. This would result in an across the board $6.90 landing charge. The problem is the airlines wouldn't accept them 'cross-subsidising' GA. Someone pointed out that GA has been subisiding the airlines for years - they don't pay a cent for pilot training but the flying schools and small charter companies pay with the constant turnover of pilots. Also ACCC don't want cross-subsidisations
* Basin Pricing - Charge the same fee for all airports in say the Sydney Basin. This would see a small increase in the price currently paid for Sydney. The reasoning for this was that all 3 Sydney airports are interlinked - the price hikes indicated would see traffic migrate from CN to BK and then to SY for the lower charges. Can you see C152s landing at SY? The problems with this are the same as above
4. Also, there were some far reaching ideas about alternatives to ASA ATC. For example in Ardmore NZ apparently instructors operate a quasi-control tower for about 1/10th the price.
It was an interesting evening (although I missed most of the State of Origin) - and I think a little positive came out of it, with the guys from ASA saying they would be taking these points to the minister, along with all the submissions made (there have been a truckload)