VB/Corrigan unhappy over SYD Terminal
Corrigan blasts airport corporation over terminal delays
AAP SMH July 22 2002
Patrick Corp chief executive Chris Corrigan today said delays in giving Virgin Blue Airlines access to the former Ansett terminal slots in Sydney was a disgrace.
Virgin Blue, in which Patrick acquired a 50 per cent stake for $260 million in March, is seeking access to about eight of the 30 abandoned Ansett terminal slots from Sydney Airport Corporation (SAC).
Mr Corrigan today blamed lengthy bureaucratic procedures for the delays, and said he would prefer to deal with a government department.
"It's not fair to the passengers that they have to queue up in lines like this to get to the airport, to get through to their flights," Mr Corrigan told journalists at Sydney airport, pointing to queues spilling out of Virgin's temporary terminal and onto the footpath outside.
"It's really a disgrace that Sydney airport have got an empty terminal down the way with nobody in it, absolutely nothing in it - it's been like that for nine months or so, 10 months, they've owned it for two months - and what we're being told is that they're considering their options," Mr Corrigan said.
I don't know what options they've got, but clearly Virgin has an agreement to go in there, we've settled all the major terms and we're being told, 'we're considering our options and we may be able to get you there in September or November'.
"In the meantime, the travelling public are the losers because they're having to queue up in this obscene fashion that we're seeing here today."