Which airport needs an upgrade?

[ramyon]

Been talking on another thread and I was interested at how passionate some people were about the development of their favourite local airports. I've been amazed at recent years with the huge growth in passenger numbers. In Australia alone there have been several smaller airports which have passed the 1 million passenger mark for the first time for example Launceston and Newcastle.....Airports that have been investing in their infrastructure seem to be reaping the benefits. Also, unlike many airlines most airports make a positive return on investment and can be very profitable. So my question is if you had a few spare million to invest which airport would you develop and what would you do?

I think Wanaka airport near Queenstown represents a great opportunity as it is in the heartland of the NZ tourist industry and has the room to lengthen it's runway to international standards. A 2.5 Km runway would make it piossible to handle widebody flights from Asia. Currently Queenstown (1800 m) can't handle these flights because like Wellington it is constrained by it's runway length. There is also limited scope to expand without throwing tens of millions at it and upsetting too many local and environmentalist groups.

[Uncle Chop Chop]

As much as I'd like to see WF getting extended it's not going to happen is it? If the QLDC (a pack of GCs) has invested lots into QN there wouldn't be much point doing up WF for jets. At the most a bigger terminal and a new set of desperately needed toilets and perhaps some Q300s in the winter for the ski bums (as an aside can the Q300s do gps into WF?).

Lets do up UK and start going back into MC!!

[Howard Hughes]

The list would be much shorter if you asked "which airport doesn't need an upgrade"?;)

[Lodown]

I'd like to see all the GAAP airports receive an upgrade to handle low capacity RPT. In conjunction, I'd also like to see some rules changed that currently protect RPT operators and their routes from charter operations.

La, la, la, fairyland is a wonderful place.

[empacher48]

NZMC has already been upgraded, about 4 years ago, it was widened in order for Pionair to fly the Convair into and out of. Still has the terminal facilities which Mt Cook Airlines used to use, so not much needs to be changed.

The long term vision for NZUK is for a new longer and wider runway, but that plan is for about 20 to 30 years time! But in order to use NZMC you need a suitable alternate close by otherwise its a very long bus ride when the winds are too strong, or cloud/vis is too bad to get in (very frequent events) - hence why Mt Cook used NZUK.

[qantel]

Newcastle although reaping the rewards in pax numbers is in serious need of investment. Being a council owned business it's run with out experienced airport/aviation management. :ugh:

It's strategic location to Sydney is offering many around the Syd/Central and North Coast basin another option. However with the terminal in desperate need of an upgrade mixed in with council bureaucracy and lack of funding they are missing out on massive opportunities.

Newcastle City Council and Port Stephens Councils need to sell it off and allow a cashed up consortium to really run it to its maximum potential.

[ramyon]

The list would be much shorter if you asked "which airport doesn't need an upgrade"?;)


LOL good point.. Although I think the industry has realised for the most part that air travel is going to grow into the forseeable future and that there is good money to be made in the long-term by having the infrastructure in place now. My hats off to the Venture Southland group who got behind extending the runway at invercargill. Sure they don't have regular trans-tasman flights yet but in 10 years they probably will and it would cost a hang of alot more to do it then than now.........

[ZK-NSJ]

nelson, the only thing they have upgraded in the last 20yrs is the carpet in the terminal

[mention1]

For Runways I's have to say COOMA and TAREE. They are goat tracks.

[ramyon]

nelson, the only thing they have upgraded in the last 20yrs is the carpet in the terminal


Yeah mate with you 100% there.:D I actually miss the old carpet though it was so ugly it was beautiful.. Get sick of picking up my bags off the back of a tractor too......

put on a $5 development charge
Bowl the golf course and a few properties near by to extend the runway north (1750-1850m out to do it)
build a brand spanking new 2 million capable terminalThat's what I reckon....

[Capt Wally]

........slip on over to BLT (Ballarat) where the rwys are like roller coaster rides !!!.........the spinal patients love 'em !:bored: (slight thread drift here) And to think there's going to be a major training centre there. I can just see it now, send out a student for their first solo nav in the morning & by lunch time they'll be unable to find BLT again due the lovely wx they have there a lot during winter.........NOT !


CW:)

[Kiwiguy]

The long term vision for NZUK is for a new longer and wider runway, but that plan is for about 20 to 30 years time! But in order to use NZMC you need a suitable alternate close by otherwise its a very long bus ride when the winds are too strong, or cloud/vis is too bad to get in (very frequent events) - hence why Mt Cook used NZUK.


The local business community is desperate for anyone to operate regular revenue flights to Pukaki. Nice big McKenzie basin too for instrument let downs, with two VOR beacons.

[empacher48]

Nice big McKenzie basin too for instrument let downs, with two VOR beacons

Only one beacon, two different approaches, one into UK and the other for NZGT/NZMC.

Problem is the high MSAs getting into the basin, unless you're flying pressurised and high performance twins (capable of holding around 10,000' on one engine and certified into known icing conditions) into the area, then it gets very hard to run regular flights into the area.

[frothy]

Try the Gladstone Saga. The Air Strip was built by local identies years ago, has been run(efficiently) by a progressive Board which includes Board Members from both Gladstone and Calliope Councils. They have tried to keep abreast with change as pax nos. increase due to the Industrial and tourist scene. (no I'm not a Board Member or associated with it):}
Due to increased traffic and heavier Aircraft the runway has to be upgraded and extended.
The problem, Federal and State Govts. won't kick the can(surprise,surprise) yet they're willing to draw the income from what they all discribe as "the powerhouse of the Nation".
The Board has about 30 per cent of the cost of this project but seemed to have failed to get the Govt. support required.
You Dash8 Drivers could attest to the runway condition
The runway is getting to the stage of patches on patches, so there has been talk about the Airport being closed if we get a half decent wet Season(still plenty of time with the current Monsoonal Trough)
Even during the Porkbarrel Season prior to the Election no one would commit the dough ,and Flynn being a new Seat up for grabs, but I did get a Letter from Martin Ferguson stating if the ALP won Govt. they would " work with th Board on solutions to both the immediate issue of financing the Runway repairs and upgrade and longterm development." Still nothing.
You can't get through to the Locals they might well be without thier RFDS, Marine Pilot transfers, Island Transfers, RPT and FIFO and freight ops etc.:ugh:
It's been that long since a wet season everyone seems to have forgotten the damage they can do.
Will Minister Albanese act on the word given by the previous Shadow Minister?
Yet to be seen.
I'm sure there are numerous Runways needing Govt. assistance around Oz, but this Region relies so heavily on it's Air Link.
We can only live in hope

Frothy

[OZBUSDRIVER]

How big is Chinchilla now? Lot of investment in that area of late.

[5miles]

CAIRNS - Full length taxiways ASAP please.
More heavies than Adelaide and Perth means plenty of back tracks = low Rwy utilisation.

[frothy]

5miles
At Gladstone due to taxiway damage the Q400's have to backtrack to rwy10.
Bundy is another one for backtracking, Thangool and Emerald also. Bundy and Gladstone have high daily arrivals and departures thus causing delays.
Fortunately at Gladstone we all work in pretty well together with circuit adjustments to accomodate RPT. But as I said RPT has a good chance of going if the rains do anymore damage especially rwy10 near taxiway Delta.
We have no ICU at our Hospital and pretty well no Specialists so all urgent accident and cardiac pateints are transferred to Brisbane with RFDS, as well as the General Public having to go RPT to Brisbane for Specialist Medical Treatment.
This will not be possible if we lose our Runway. It's only when this happens the Public will wake up to the seriousness of the situation:ugh:
Everyone in Town should be on to our newly elected MP as well as the new Minister and Opposition Leader, but apathy prevails

Frothy

[Kiwiguy]

Whangarei or Kerikeri (or both) need stronger runways for larger heavier aircraft. Nelson is the obvious choice for runway extension and strengthening.

Paraparaumu could be developed asa low cost alternative to relieve congestion at Wellington. PPQ has a natural catchment for about 30% of domestic travellers domiciled in the Wellington region.

Tauranga is a fast growing city and I am surprised the runway isn't extended there.

[2yng2baJnr]

I say hamilton needs upgrade, not just a face lift. After the millions they have put into developing it, they havent increased capacity. runway length is the same, apron area is the same. Hamilton customs can not handle anything more than 1 full A320 at any one time. The airport mangers need to look long an hard about what they have done to the airport. to be hounst in terms of growth theres been :mad: all

[Towering Q]

Kalgoorlie...... new management!!!! and new taxiways on RWY 11,29, and forget about the federales!!!!:ugh:

***

Ignore the above, except for the new taxiway bit.

Some crab from the hangar has jumped onto my pooter in the office and had some fun. Time to uncheck the 'remember my password' option.:suspect:

[ramyon]

I say hamilton needs upgrade, not just a face lift. After the millions they have put into developing it, they havent increased capacity. runway length is the same, apron area is the same. Hamilton customs can not handle anything more than 1 full A320 at any one time. The airport mangers need to look long an hard about what they have done to the airport. to be hounst in terms of growth theres been :mad: all


Really?? I thought Hamilton was one of the more proactive regional airports in NZ in terms of infrastructure development. Haven't they just finished a massive 15 milllion upgrade of it's terminal which has more than doubled it's processing capacity? Wasn't the runway also extended from 1950m to 2195m to allow for unrestricted trans-tasman flights? As I understand it the runway is to be further extended soon to 2700m enabling direct Asian flights. Surprised that they haven't expanded the apron though, no point having extra passenger capacity if there is no room to park the planes....



CAIRNS - Full length taxiways ASAP please.
More heavies than Adelaide and Perth means plenty of back tracks = low Rwy utilisation.


Sounds like an easy fix for Cairns then.. I'm amazed that the airlines haven't been lobbying the Cairns Port Authority to get it done...

[megle2]

Chinchilla has been surveyed up for a longer runway.
Not sure which financial year it will happen.

[Stationair8]

Tullamarine
Parallel both runways,
Move international terminal over to the western side of the airport.

Sydney
Get rid of the stupid 16/34 curfew at night time

Newcastle
Upgrade to full international status

Hobart
Parallel taxiway for 12/30, to save all the taxi delays
New cross strips 09/27 & 06/24 for light aircraft when Cambridge goes in a few years time.
More ramp space in front of the terminal, gets very tight on the overnights.

Launceston
Get rid of the crappy terminal, doesn't that get a bunfight at Virgin/Tiger end on the afternoon turn around.

New Melbourne airport
Somewhere down in the SE catchment area, one of the fatest growing areas in Australia.

I suppose also a number of the regional airports will need upgrading to take the Virgin ERJ

[2yng2baJnr]

hamilton with 1 bording gate (ground floor exit)which is basicly owned by airnz i harderly call the increase capcity at least b4 the upgrade we had 2 the airbridge and a ground floor exit:}..not to mention there is now no where to put an airbridge..one holdstow x-ray, one passenger xray machine, 1 carry on xray hardly an increase.you are quite rite the runway has been extend, but its not strong enough. the extention they did cant take 767 weight well done the engineer which designed tht:D. not to mention the anything larger than 767 would require the exsiting runway to be ripped up and done so help strength that...i think 15millon shud have been spent on tht...the airport terminal is pretty that is all:p

[topend3]

runway strengthening does not require ripping up the runway. Ashphalt overlay of the existing runway would provide additional strength...perhaps they have considered the likelihood of larger than 737/A320 aircraft using the airport is remote. One-off charters and the like could be easily accomodated by providing the operator with a pavement concession...

[27/09]

Hamilton.......... and most other regional airports in New Zealand. It seems to be a pissing contest to see who can have the biggest terminal or the longest runway, without any thought as to where the passengers are going to come from to use them.

For :mad: sake, we are a country of only 4 million people spread out over an area bigger than the British Isles. We are not exacly closely located to any large population bases who can/want/need to come to New Zealand, and even if they did would they want to fly direct to Hamilton, Tauranga, Invercargill etc?

Back to Hamilton,

New terminal (monument to the airport hierachy) which isn't functional, - want to see how farcical PAX security is for jet/international ops. Just watch as domestic PAX walk across the apron thru the line of international PAX as each group boards their respective aircraft. A parallel taxyway might have been a better investment.

As for the runway extension to 2700m, refer first two paragraphs of my post. This extension involves the closing of a road and there doesn't seem to to be much action on that front so I wouldn't expect to see the extension to happen anytime soon. The VOR would need to be relocated as well.

Full advantage has yet to be taken from the last runway extension as the touchdown zone hasn't been moved to the north and the IFR approach profile is still for the old threshold.

All in all an airport run by people who don't really know how to run an airport, but there is nothing wrong with their egos.

[ramyon]

All in all an airport run by people who don't really know how to run an airport, but there is nothing wrong with their egos.


What would you have done differently? I guess it's natural for airport managers to want to build longer runways and bigger terminals it's probably also an excuse for all those Powerpoint addicts to have something really impressive to show everyone at management meetings...:D:yuk:

[Kiwiguy]

Jobs and growth follow infrastructure.

Historically, cities grew up around natural harbours. Airports are modern equivalents.

Now if these were harbours would you really blame them for dredging it deeper and putting in container cranes to attract more prosperity ?

In a sense having good airports facilitates growth in tourism and that is good for the entire country.

Had you asked me thirty years ago about building a container port at Tauranga, I would have asked why ?

Now it's NZ's biggest busiest port and Auckland is being bypassed.

I do question given Rotorua or Hamilton's fogs why throw so much money at them. For Rotorua the answer is obvious from tourism.

Spose you could say the same for weather at Queenstown, but then they extended the runway there and we now have RNP approaches.

[dawson67]

Toowoomba airport could do with a runway extension 2

[Skystar320]

CAIRNS - Full length taxiways ASAP please.
More heavies than Adelaide and Perth means plenty of back tracks = low Rwy utilisation.

I would expect Perth receives more widebodies than Cairns

4 x SQ 777
2 x EK 777
4 x QF 744

The list goes one

[Nivo]

Most of the airports I fly to need the same thing - WAAS

Nivo

[Flying Binghi]

At least all the big Oz airports have nice shiny new fenceing... :rolleyes:

[ForkTailedDrKiller]

Muttaburra airport was looking a bit run down the last time I was there! Doesn't even have a shiny fence.

Dr :8

[Duck Pilot]

Chimbu could do with a serious upgrade ! Anyone got a couple of D4s to shift a few mountains ? No other problems up there,the people there are really nice as well.

[Capt Wally]

Toc ( near Vic/NSW`border ) has a nice new shinny E/W rwy, must be all that glider ops wearing it out !:)

CW

[nig&nog]

How about ICAO change there requirements to the great aussie invention of T-VASIS and scrap the useless cheap papi that these days most airports are installing. Am sick of looking at 4 whites and reds all at the same time

nig not nog

[Sunfish]

Point Cook - turn it into a GA airport and an Aviation museum/heritage centre.

The drive to YMMB is just too long.

[Mr. Hat]

all except adelaide

[Tarmac Terrier]

Has Adelaide got an Airport?

[Flyingblind]

Canberra, we don't have an aerodrome anymore just a 'business park' :}

[sms777]

Do not have to worry about Bankstown. It has a big enough Bunnings warehouse that any overflow traffic can land on it's roof.

[slackie]

Biggest problem with Hamilton (operationally) is runway utilisation. Everytime the runway gets longer runway utilisation drops 'cos it takes longer to taxi an aircraft from the only taxiway (at the midpoint). If an inbound RPT is at 10nm then we need to expedite a backtrack in order to get a departure away. The airport company also requires A320/B733 to turn only in the turning bays at each end, so that requires even more time to clear the runway. In my opinion (and I'm just a lowly controller and "don't know much about the business"!), a parallel taxiway from the apron to the threshold RWY18 would be a godsend. It is apparently on the long term plan with an intermediate holding loop from the current HoldingPoint 'H' to the RWY18 threshold in the interim...roll on that!!

[27/09]

(and I'm just a lowly controller and "don't know much about the business"!),

Slackie,

You probably know more about the business than those that occupy the offices on the eastern side.

A parallel taxi way should take priority over any future runway extensions. I wouldn't hold my breath though!!!!!!!!!!