Originally Posted by Lodown
If not, then Richmond might make a convenient Sydney domestic reliever/freight airport, but nothing more.
Isn't a reliever for Sydney, i.e. somewhere else where capacity can be added and probably at a lower cost, pretty much exactly what is needed.
Mascot's proximity to the city is certainly a constraint in terms of possibility of expansion, but it is also a great asset in terms of convenience to the CBD and surrounding areas. I don't think it makes sense to replace it as the primary airport unless you can replace it with something very whiz-bang, but there really isn't anywhere convenient left to build a whiz-bang facility easily. You either end up with an airport which is just as compromised in terms of room to grow and curfews, or you end up with an airport that is so far away from Sydney that there will be significant demand left at Mascot (I think there are some parallels to the recent shift of airports in Bangkok...)
Personally, I'd like to see Sydney with three (yes three) commercial airports. Sydney as the main airport, with Richmond and Camden more geared towards domestic and low-cost operators. The three are all pretty much equally spaced (about 23nm from memory), Richmond is close to the north-west arm growth area of the city, Camden is close to the south-west growth area. Camden would obviously need a lot of work (probably a new runway on a ~20° more northerly-southerly alignment than the current one), and for that reason would probably be a lot further down the timeline than Richmond. GA should be retained at Camden, and encouraged at Richmond, in the same manner that airports such as Gold Coast have GA operations alongside airline operations.
TT