Stand-off between Brisbane Airport owners and airlines threatens delays to new runway
BRISBANE Airport is set to halt work on a desperately needed new runway, creating further delays for frustrated passengers and jeopardising the state's economic growth.
The long-awaited $1.3 billion project is being held ransom in a stand-off between the airport's private owners and the airlines.
The parallel runway, which was due to be completed in 2020, is the intended long-term solution to growing flight congestion which made the airport the country's worst for arrival times in December.
Brisbane Airport Corporation, which rakes in $9 million a week in revenue but finished the last financial year $54 million in the red, wants airlines to fund a quarter of the runway cost through increased passenger charges over the eight-year development period. But they refuse.
No other airport has ever demanded upfront payment of new infrastructure over such a long period, with Perth Airport ditching its plan to pre-charge airlines for a third runway earlier this year.
The deadlock in Brisbane threatens to stall construction of the 3.3km runway.
About $50 million worth of first-phase site works, started last August, are due to be completed by the end of May.
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