Thorny perhaps in regards to some of your 'rumour QONs' - in particular GA airports - you could drop Beaker a line..
Given his penchant for facts & figures it is quite possible, that contained within the stuffing in his noggin, he may well be able to provide some answers for you, although you will have to pander to his ego & it wouldn't hurt to extract the puppet-master's hand (M&M) stuck up his
....
While on the subject of Airports I note that the NSW Parliamentary
Standing Committee on State Development yesterday released their report & recommendations from the inquiry into
Regional Aviation Services.
Many of the recommendations, either directly or indirectly, require some sort of response/action from the miniscule and his department..
Examples:
Recommendation 1
That local communities, the mining industry, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and the NSW
Government discuss opportunities to pursue a more coordinated approach to the provision of air
services that recognise the needs of local communities and the resources industry.
Recommendation 2
That the NSW Government write to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development,
to encourage the expansion of the current Direction 93, made under subsection 95X of the Competition and Consumer Act 1910
(Cth) to include pricing for other Sydney Airport services,
including hangar space, airline office space, storage facilities, and other infrastructure used by
regional airlines.
Recommendation 3
That the NSW Government write to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development
to encourage a review of the current slot allocation and movements cap systems in place at
Sydney Airport, which should include eliminating the 15 minute movement cap and the removal
of regional turboprop aircraft from the movements cap.
Recommendation 4
That the NSW Government write to the Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development
and request that the Federal Government consider the possibility of allocating a limited number
of the reserved regional slots into Sydney Airport to specific regional communities.
Recommendation 5
That the NSW Government in its correspondence with the Minister for Infrastructure and
Regional Development urge the Federal Government to amend the Sydney Airport Demand Act
1997 to ensure the access of regional regular passenger transport services to Sydney Airport is
preserved.
Recommendation 6
That the NSW Government establish a roundtable of stakeholders, headed by the Minister for
Regional Infrastructure and Services to develop an on-going funding arrangement for the
continued maintenance of the network of essential airfields across the state.
& R8 even goes so far as to criticise the legislation and (God forbid..
) the regs...
Recommendation 8
That the NSW Government write to the Minister for Transport and Infrastructure to note the
concerns of regional airports that they are overburdened and overwhelmed by the frequent
changes to civil aviation safety legislation and regulations. Furthermore, the committee
recommends that the NSW Government urges the Minister to consider the impact of security
and safety regulations on regional airports and encourage the adoption of a risk management
approach. The Minister will also be asked to provide funding to support regulatory change that
requires upgrades to be made to infrastructure.
Hmm..wonder if these future correspondences will remain piled up with the rest of the elephants gathering dust in the miniscule's aviation in-tray - especially given that the NSW Coalition govt will soon be facing the polls???
...Senator Heffernan looks to be on the warpath over protecting GA airports from encroaching development. In the
Senate Estimates hearing last Monday night he asked
Department of Infrastructure and Transport Secretary Mike Mrdak what guarantees the department could give GA that they would have airports to land on in the future. The answer was worrying. As well as being in time-honoured officialese of the professional bureaucrat, it basically said that the government is committed to preserving the capital city GA airports, but the state governments were not being so co-operative with planning laws. In
Victoria, the
state government came out and made a supportive statement over Essendon. Perhaps it's time the other states told us clearly what value they put on their GA airports.
The opening question to the
CASA group on Monday night was effectively "when are you going to appoint a CEO?" In ways it was pleasing to see that the senate committee couldn't get more info from
CASA than anyone else could. The answer was "the next few weeks."
CASA has known they needed a new
Director of Aviation Safety (DAS) since February and we still don't have one eight months later.
John McCormick didn't actually leave until 31 August, so you have to ask if they sat on their hands until then. Eight months is plenty enough to fill any position. Let's hope there's word soon...
MTF..
