I wonder if Schofields could ever have been an option?

Its wall to wall with McMansions now mate.

Actually TG the airport itself, including bitumen runways is still there.
McMansions on final though!;)

I figured around Schofields was housing development by now. It was more of a 'Wonder if it could have been...?" thought.

Willi needed a parallel runway back in the '70's. Plenty of land then but now encroached by terminals/hangars etc etc. The short sighted idiots that run this country should have a re-education holiday at somewhere like.....
Treblinka.

Most Major Oz airports should have or plan for a parallel runway like the rest of the modern world.

Perth used to have a plan, before the Federal gov sold it to a private concern. The area set aside for the parallel runway is now under the Coles and Woolworth distribution centres. The federal government should have kept them.

Heaps of land just north of Warnervale, East or west of the Sydney/ Newcastle freeway. We dont mind a parallel runway. heaps of jobs, beautiful aircraft to look at all day, good freeway and rail connection to Hornsby and Newcastle and Gosford.....

Warnervale has rapidly encroaching development and very strong commercial pressure to sell land for industrial use. I've flown over Schofields a few times. Funny to still see the remnants of runway and aerodrome surrounded by housing developments. Richmond has a number of serious limitations.

The pollies, bless their souls, need to friggin' make a decision, stick to it, and not succumb to the greedy lure of housing/industrial development dollars. And what are the chances of that happening? Unfortunately when it comes to a 2nd airport for Sydney, it is bipartisan greed and incompetence as far as the eye can see.....

Richmond 40/220
 

Would constructing a new 2.7km 40/220 runway at Richmond from Bankstown Rd, North East across Hawkesbury Valley Way (route the vehicle traffic underneath) towards Dight St be a solution and:

1. Install world class navigational facilities
2. Re-direct domestic B737 / A320 / Turboprops to Richmond
3. Provide limited B737 / A320 / slots at Sydney for passengers connecting to international flights.

It is the year 2035 - an A380-1000X operated by British Emirates Airways has just arrived at newly opened Sydney West Albanese Airport after an 18 hour flight from Thames Estuary Boris Airport.

They will keep stuffing around for the perceivable future, meanwhile CBR and NTL will continue to grow as their populations continue to grow, until Bingo, someone will say whats wrong with CBR or NTL, by then thats where Sydney will start and finish. Expect a new airport circa 2035. (You might even get two)!

Tell him he's dreamin'......

Yeah I can really see someone who lives in Cronulla driving past Mascot, and then sit in a car for another 90mis to get to Richmond to check in a minimum 60 mins before flight to fly to Brisbane, enter the mandatory hold at CG for 20 mins and finally get to Brisbane where you hold off stand for another 20 mins waiting for a gate........

It was quicker to fly between SYD & MEL/BNE 45 years ago in turboprop than it is now.

Both SYD & BNE are artificially limited by either government sanctioned or other groups interests.

Until, party politics are put aside we as tax payers, fight crew or ground staff are going to have to put up with this situation for a very, very long time!

Lets look at two airports.... Brisbane & Gatwick..... both with 1 runway.

BNE 192,000 movements, 20 million pax
LGW 251,000 movements, 32 million pax

There is no reason why BNE cant step up, and no reason why SYD cant handle more or even if RIC was to get serious.....

1 runway can handle a lot of traffic its the political BS that needs to be circumvented.

Australian city dwellers need a teaspoon of cement powder and TTFU! If you want to move forward and join the rest of the world as something more than a bridge, a harbour, some beaches and the daily bikie shoot out you and your political drones need to get real.

Well said IHD. Face it, the Sydney basin will only ever have one major airport. The horse has bolted. It doesn't have the infrastructure, space, and money for capital expenditure and never will now. The best thing to do for Sydney is move the international ops out of there and make it a purely domestic airport. Any satellite airport for Sydney; whether it be Newcastle, Orange, Bathurst, or wherever, may as well be out of state. It's all much the same for travel times in connecting flights. For example, Brisbane has a lot of room for expansion into Moreton Bay. If it wasn't for the fact that it's privately owned, it could serve Sydney as well as, if not better than any secondary Sydney airport. Same applies to Melbourne.

Fill in Botany Bay and turn it into a giant airport. Screw the rare midget saltwater slime mould, et al - the bay hasn't been 'natural' since the Tank Stream was last able to supplythe entire colony with fresh water.

land fill east broken bay, or Jilliby, Wyee,Walllarah, or even the long and largely unnnocupied Budgewoi sandy point which is about7 km long and a km wide.

Got to be creative!

If last Friday night trying to pick up relatives from a 10pm flight is any example,Sydney Airport is farked already. Total gridlock TRYING to get to that absurd pickup carpark,in the end relos just walked up to me in the traffic and jumped in. Forget any additional flights unless they make the Airport rail link free and an express dedicated line to Central and back.

archer2002
 

archer you are certainly correct. The infrastructure "servicing' the airport is utter sh!te. You can do whatever you like to the airport re movements, runways whatever but the roads are clogged from 6am thru to 8 pm at least. The rail link is an expensive joke (just like parking there) and the pick up and drop off is hopeless as the place is held hostage by spiv limo drivers and taxi drivers who clearly have a completely different set of rules.

Wasn't there talk about an airport site around Peat's ridge somewhere a few years ago? Bugger all residents to annoy, lots of farm land, good transport to the area etc.

After flying home from Narita last night. Getting from tokyo to narita airport was absolutely stuffed. After a 1 hour train ride, swapping trains 3 times and $40 out of pocket i got to Narita airport and supposedly Japan's public transport system is meant to be good.

I can only imagine how long it will take for someone like myself who lives on the east coast of Sydney (Sutherland Shire) to get to an airport somewhere in western Sydney by public transport. And also how expensive the taxi fare will be (to get to Sydney airport from my house the cab fare was $80. :ugh:

My suggestion would be to just to expand the airport we already have by somehow extending the 16L/34R runway so that A330's, 767's and 787's can take off and land and building a runway parallel to the 07/25 runway.

8pm? This was a 10pm landing and the road was in gridlock at almost 10.30pm.As for pull-up-terrain's issues with living in the Shire, spare a thought for the people in Sydney's North West, or further out West. An $80 taxi fare would be a blessing, and its about more than aircraft movements if the passengers can't get to the airport because of the traffic.

Pffft, the people out west are too busy pimping up cars, and shooting at houses. The few who can afford to fly are probably rich drug dealers anyway. :E

The flloodplain north of Richmond can never be built on for reidential housing, so a perfect spot for an airport.

Newcastle, Canberra will eventualy become international airports in their own right, serving their local population bases. But not as a 2nd sydney airport.

Fog at Richmond, cat 3 ILS solves that problem, only been doing that for 40 years in Europe and the USA.

Terrain around richmond, cant see that as a big problem, an annoying one for sure. Have a look at the IFR letdowns into Innsbruck. Right down a narrow valley with mountains 8,000 above airport elevation 4nm either side.

RAAF not allowing civies into their airports.......who the bloody hell runs the country, tha RAAF????.........I sure as hell didnt vote for Wing Commander such and such.

Sydney needs a 2nd airport in the Sydney basin, no where else.

Badgereys Creek is right in the middle of the expansion are for houses, non sensical to put an airport there.

Wilton, thats a red herring staight out of the script of yes Minister. Sir Humprey Appleby would be most impressed.

The Egyptians (and others) built the Suez Cannal 150 years ago. we cant even dam off a floodplain. Kinda sums up Australia.

Who runs the Country?
 

Ozgrade3, bloody good question. Of course the RAAF do not run the country. Neither is the current Federal Government doing much of a job of it either. Your suggestion that the floodplain to the north of Richmond be built up and the airfield expanded is probably not implausible, but it won't happen in my lifetime nor yours most likely.

As for the RAAF not allowing civilian aircraft to use their facility, don't think that is the case. Many airfields are shared and have been for years. The RAAF may control airspace around airfields, but they give clearances to non military aircraft to use that airspace and the associated airfields. Maybe you did not vote for Wing Commander So and So, but just remember that maybe someday you might appreciate him or her as they fight to keep you free to fly around in this country.

Noise compliant A/C 24/7 access with special night time SID & STARs
 

Join the real world.
Noise compliant A/C are quieter than other other environmental noise

The DOD are now actively positioning Richmond for more civil traffic, not trying to stop it.

Holsworthy
 

It doesn't get mentioned much. As ULTRALIGHTS mentioned, land is there, aligned for a 3rd runway Sydney. Centrally located. Easy to put in a short high speed rail link between airports with connections to anywhere else on the rail system. M5 feeds into it. The military could easily be moved to that large base they have near Cobbitty and still have rapid response for Sydney from there. Bankstown a/port shouldn't interfere and could also be linked. Seems like a no brainer. Am I missing something??

There is a reason why Holsworthy has not got a large strip, any earthworks in the area run the risk of unexplored ordinance and it's a tad close to a radioactive restricted area. To quote a 1995 report on the second airport proposals: The 1985 SSP rejected Holsworthy because of irresolvable airspace conflicts with Bankstown Airport, which would have to close, as well as the unexploded ordnance issue. Consequently, Holsworthy was not included in the ranking process which led to the short-list of two sites.

Shame they can't find and remove any old ordinance which will have to be done at some stage anyway you would think. Relocate Bankstown to Holsworthy(that would keep it busy initially) or a new runway at Badgery's creek(there's land still set aside if the previous scenario is untenable). Let the developers take Bankstown. That would cover a lot of the costs $$$. Radioactive area?? Not good for the middle of Sydney, can't they clean that up and remove it as well?? Sounds like killing 2 or 3 birds with the one stone.

rj27 He I believe would be referring to the just rebuilt nuclear reactor at Lucas Heights.

It appears that much of the talk re Badgery's, Wilton, etc. is for an aerodrome to replace KSA; likewise much of the talk around RIC & Willy (such as teh RAAF study quoted above) appears to be for them to become 'major' civil fields.

We have to assume that KSA will remain the primary for years - decades - to come. But could not RIC and Willy become - not major civil fields, but overflows?

Riccy could have a limited number of A320 / 737-sized, short- and mid-range services, meaning no runway extension, limited impact on military operations and a viable alternative for anyone north and west of Parramatta - even if available destinations were only (say) MEL, BNE and ADL (and the odd AKL perhaps). Stick a cat III in and the fog issue is largely addressed.

As for Willy, the Newcastle / Hunter area has sufficient population to act as its own catchment, and it is too far from Sydney to be a 'second' Sydney airport - again naturally limiting ops to the extent that there would be no threat to mil ops.

So if each of RIC & WIL took 10-15 services a day, that's 30 slot pairs a day opened up at YSSY. Even 24 services between 06.00-18.00 would be only 2 arrivals and 2 departures per hour - one every 15 minutes - would that seriously stuff up military ops?

SACL has ended the debate
 

They have told the minister they will exercise their option over the 2nd airport.
They will now take their time, doing it where they want, when they want.
It will be driven by airline demand and shareholder willingness to invest.
Government at both levels have been hoist by their own petards.
Max the Axe proving once again that no matter where he is, he is the smartest man in the room. Nothing to see here now folks.