Max Moore Wilton stills thinks Sydney doesn't need another airport. He may be right if they ditch all curfews and restrictions and build a 2 new terminals, otherwise I cannot see how his position is at all logical.
Anyway the circus rolls on..........
Sydney Airport chairman Max Moore-Wilton and Qantas Airways chief executive Alan Joyce don’t always agree.
The outspoken Mr Moore-Wilton doesn’t expect a second airport in Sydney will be needed for 30 to 35 years.
He also described former Labor transport minister Anthony Albanese as “the worst aviation minister we’ve had in my lifetime”.
Mr Joyce, by contrast, thinks all of the slots at the current airport will be gone by 2030 and that Mr Albanese did a “great job”.
But at The Australian Financial Review and Macquarie Future Forums Transport lunch in Sydney on Wednesday, the airport and its biggest customer did agree that if another Sydney airport is built, it should be at Badgerys Creek.
The Abbott government is expected to make a provision for a new airport at the site west of the city in its first budget in May, although the amount allocated is unknown.
More practical matters
As a result, once theoretical discussions about a second airport have turned to more practical matters like operating fees, transport links and state government support. There is an expectation within the Coalition that NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell will ultimately drop his opposition to Badgerys Creek to bring him in line with his federal counterparts.
Scott Charlton, the chief executive of toll road operator Transurban, indicated it would be important for the state to support the development because of the need for surrounding rail, road and fuel pipeline infrastructure.
“The infrastructure to get people there is usually a multiple of the cost of the airport itself,” said Mr Charlton, who once worked on the construction of a new airport in Hong Kong.
“The good news for toll road companies is all roads lead to an airport or away from an airport eventually. Whether it is Badgerys Creek or Sydney there is need for increased capacity in transport.”
When questioned about federal funding for a second Sydney airport, Treasurer Joe Hockey would not comment specifically.
“I’m not spending a hell of a lot of time on the second airport for Sydney,” he said. “I’m the guy who has to find the money for that and other projects if they’re to proceed.”
First right of refusal
He emphasised the government needed partnerships with the private sector to develop infrastructure.
Sydney Airport has a first right of refusal over the development of a second airport in Sydney. Mr Moore-Wilton questioned whether there would be a large amount of private sector participation.
“Unless somebody is coming and prepared to wear an enormous overhead cost, the issue is the federal government would have to bear that,” he said. “Under any scenario that I could imagine it would have to be a huge government subsidy in the early years. I couldn’t offer that because my 38,000 shareholders, they would lynch me.”
Mr Joyce said it would make sense for Qantas, as the national flag carrier, to operate from more than one airport in Sydney just as British Airways does in London, Japan Airlines in Tokyo and Air France in Paris.
“Obviously a lot depends on the infrastructure cost and having the right operation for that airport,” he said. “But there is absolutely a market for it if it is in the right location, has the right cost base in terms of delivery of service, the right transport links, we would be keen on using it.”
Macquarie Equities analyst Ian Myles said he believed the solution for a second Sydney Airport would be to require a reworking of the current airport concession, so that fees levied to airlines were done across airports and a regulated split of traffic types between the new airports.
He said assuming a $5 billion development cost, to make it financially feasible, airlines would have to agree to pay a landing fee twice as high as Sydney to land passengers 50 to 100 kilometres further way from the CBD.
“No rational airline would agree to this, save the usual caveats of government subsidy or regulatory change [unless] there was some type of agreement across both airports,” Mr Myles said.
Air chiefs agree to agree, and disagree, on Badgerys Creek