Sydney Airside Tarmac Tours Closing
 

I am a tour guide with the above company as well as a private pilot.

The company has, for the past 10 years conducted tours of Sydney Airport inside the fence. There has never been a problem with this operation.

Sydney Airport Corporation Limited has advised that they will not be renewing the contract to conduct these tours after 30 June 2010.

There will be no other company or organisation operating these tours after this date.

Therefore, if you want to get a last look at the inside of the airport I suggest you contact Airside Tarmac Tours quickly.

Phil McLeod

Having accompanied my child on this tour, it will be very disappointing to see it shut down.

The operation is very professional, informative and the kids (and me) absolutely loved it. Our guide was fantastic and full of facts and information for the kids. The kids were in awe the whole time.

I will be writing to SAC and ask that as many others as possible do the same to try and keep the tours going.

I think you’ll find DOTARS somewhere behind this decision.

Airport security madness spreads

first it was the Observation Decks now this - sorry to hear the news Phil.

SAC held an interesting line of pax surcharges in the green/white paper debate.

AT

Phil,
Did SACL provide any reason for not renewing the contract? Did they mention anything at all about "security" being of concern?

Erin,
I don't think you can blame the Office of Transport Security for this as nothing in the regs precludes persons visiting airside provided the VIC requirements are complied with. All that is required is for the person/s to have lawful reason for being airside. Lawful reason is not defined anywhere.



ps. DOTARS is dead - has been since KRudd came to power.:p

I guess they got sick of being called D'ohTARS, ScroTARS etc. OTS doesn't lend itself to as many creative variations :}

I'm also interested in what their stated reason was. I think a lot of airport honchos underestimate the joy people (particularly kids) get from these type of experiences and the positive PR it generates for the airport.

I saw a YouTube video of this I think.

Anyway, I'll be booking a spot for myself for next holidays!

Hope to see you there!

G'day WITW,
OTS was part of the old DOTARS too. But all is not lost, the Dept of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Govt is being referred to as the DTIRD (d-turd)

Good stuff! :ok:

SACL strikes again.

My wife and a few friends have tried to book a tour numerous times using the phone number that is displayed on the side of the bus, and the internet. Never got a response from either.:confused:

what a load of bollocks.
If it was a risk the "terry wrists & Al Kiders" would have done it already and if it currently is a risk kill it of now.

Some knob somewhere has made a decision for likely half-witted reasons depriving kids of a chance to see behind the barbed wire.
Its hard enough now to get good young people interested in being in aircraft maintenance.Used to beat them off with a stick... now.... they often do other things if technically inclined.

So sorry to hear that Phil.

The experience of many little kids who have done the tour will have fixed their sites on an aviation career.

We used to have tours at Devonport where the kids would spend a half hour with the Fireys showing off and squirting fire retardant foam and then get a chance to crawl over an F27 or F28 during turnaround, wear the headphones during startup + all that. They were wide eyed and we received many beautiful letters afterwards.

They didn't know I was doing visual signals to the crew during the start but thought thet had control just as my eldest boy thgought he was marshalling the F28 in even though I was watching and correcting behind him. I know - you didn't pay attention anyway.

The guts is that insight into the industry, one we are very passionate about, should still and always to be available to the wide eyed kids that are the industry's future.

The Septics have chucked a whole lot of new regulations out to protect their air traffic and can't even interpret the information that they now force us poor Travel Agents to load so why are we worried?

Over regulation again wins over fun and amazement. Iam sure the tour operators would recognise the kid with the surface-air missile.

Ahhhhhh - over regulation!

Best all

EWL