Terminal row could ground London link
Geoffrey Thomas and Gareth Parker - The West Australian on November 21, 2016, 12:40 am
WA appears poised to lose a planned direct flight to London after Perth Airport all but closed the door on Qantas’ push to run the international route from its domestic terminal.
The State Opposition has called on Premier Colin Barnett to intervene personally in the dispute to prevent Qantas operating its new 787 Dreamliner from an Eastern States airport.
Failure to secure the route would risk jobs and tourism-related spending.
Over the weekend, the airport said in a statement that though it supported a direct London flight, it would have to operate from Terminal 1, the international terminal on the eastern side of the airport.
Qantas insists it will operate the flights from its domestic terminal on the western side of the airport, which requires a $25 million upgrade.
Perth Airport’s chief executive Kevin Brown said that it “has offered Qantas a generous multimillion-dollar incentive package’’ to use Terminal 1.
“T1 International has the capacity to accommodate direct services to the UK and Europe, and these services can commence from T1 International at any time,” he said.
But airport consultants dispute that claim, saying that T1 has only eight gates and often they are all being used, with some passengers having to walk across the tarmac to get to their plane.
They point out that the highest priority for the airport is to build a new international satellite terminal — T5 — to accommodate growth.
A Qantas spokesman said: “The opportunity to create a western hub with the Perth-London flight will be here in 18 months, and the only place we can do that in a seamless way that actually makes it viable is the proposal we’ve put to Perth Airport to use our existing domestic terminals for international flights,” the spokesman said.
Mr Barnett repeated his comments of last week that he was prepared to accept an interim solution of Qantas operating from the domestic terminal for the next five years.
“I would then expect Qantas to move across to the T1 international terminal,” he said.
“Securing the western gateway hub through Perth Airport will be a boost to our State and I am optimistic that an agreement will be reached soon.”
Opposition Leader Mark McGowan said he understood it was a commercial matter to be negotiated between Perth Airport and Qantas, but it was also an important issue for the State.
“The Premier, as Tourism Minister as well, needs to urgently call in all parties for a roundtable discussion to seek a resolution that secures the flights for WA,” he said. “It would be disappointing for Perth if we lost this flight on Mr Barnett’s watch.”
The non-stop flight is expected to draw passengers from throughout Australia.
The service would be ideal for Adelaide and Brisbane passengers who do not have a Qantas option to Europe without flying to Melbourne or Sydney.
Qantas is expected to expand the service from a daily flight to London to add Paris, Frankfurt and possibly Rome. It could lure international travellers who are put off by the time and stops required to reach Australia.
Perth Airport said it was reviewing additional information provided by Qantas.