[Peetwo]

VA/RedRat feedback on the importance of 24/7 Badgerys -

Courtesy Annabel Hepworth (the Oz) at the IATA conference Cancun Mexico..   

Badgerys Creek must run 24 hours a day: Virgin

Virgin and Qantas say it is important that there is no curfew on flights at Badgerys Creek.

• Annabel Hepworth
  
• The Australian
  
• 12:00AM June 6, 2017
  Aviation Editor
  Sydney
  @HepworthAnnabel
  [img=0x0]https://i1.wp.com/pixel.tcog.cp1.news.com.au/track/component/author/d4b891a093ad6ddc703117011dc4fd61/?esi=true&t_product=the-australian&t_template=s3/austemp-article_common/vertical/author/widget&td_bio=false[/img]
  

It is “critical” there is no curfew on flights at Sydney’s proposed $5.3 billion airport at Badgerys Creek, with 24-hour operations likely to spur the growth in passenger traffic, says Virgin Australia Airlines group executive John Thomas.

Speaking on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association’s annual general meeting in Cancun, Mexico, Mr Thomas said “Sydney is going to run out of capacity at some stage”.

“The fact that it is going to be a curfew-free airport I think is critical because you just look at the amount of activity at Melbourne now at midnight or one o’clock in the morning — I mean it’s crazy,” Mr Thomas told The Australian.

“It’s the law of geography. For an Asian carrier to have a 7am or 8am arrival they need to leave post the curfew here. So we think it will actually generate more traffic by giving those later departures out of Sydney, which again, Sydney has never had.”

Last month, the federal government announced it would be builder and equity owner of Sydney’s proposed second airport, after Sydney Airport rejected its option to develop the project.

The government has said that no curfew is planned but demand for night-time flights will be lower than during the day. The government has also said the curfew-free status at Melbourne Airport allows an extra two million passengers to travel through it each year.

Qantas boss Alan Joyce has also argued that Badgerys Creek needs to be a 24-hour operation.

Mr Thomas backed the move to develop the project with public funding so it could eventually be privatised at a later date, which is the same model used for the rollout of the National Broadband Network.

“It’s very hard to get a private operator ... for 10 years, to basically be investing with no return over a 10-year period, or worse still getting your airline operators to pay for it over that period,” he said.

He hit out at the substantial increases in charges for airport ­access in the past few years.

“It sort of perplexes us at a time when they are building these great revenue streams in terms of their food and beverage and their retail, plus also their car parks, plus also their advertising, why do we still have such pressure on aeronautical charges?” he said.

Earlier this year, the competition regulator estimated that the four biggest airports had collected $1.57bn more in revenue from airlines over the last decade than they would have if average prices had stayed the same in real terms.

Mr Thomas said the market for corporate travel accounts was “relatively soft”.

The reporter travelled to Cancun courtesy of Virgin Australia and IATA.

MTF...P2