Submission 59 - Moorabbin Airport Chamber of Commerce
Excellent submission from the MACCI which IMO clearly articulates the serious issues of survival these secondary Metro-D airports face with the relentless encroachment by cashed up development sharks looking to slice and dice cheap prime urban land with non-aviation development like DFOs and warehousing...
MTF...P2
Excellent submission from the MACCI which IMO clearly articulates the serious issues of survival these secondary Metro-D airports face with the relentless encroachment by cashed up development sharks looking to slice and dice cheap prime urban land with non-aviation development like DFOs and warehousing...
Quote:The Moorabbin Airport Chamber of Commerce Incorporated (MACCI) membership representation is
broad and includes business from aviation maintenance, aircraft charter, pilot training, aircraft
components, retail business aviation and non-aviation, aircraft owners, pilots, and users of the
airport.
Moorabbin Airport Corporation (MAC) owned by Goodman Property Group hold the head lease from
the commonwealth since 23rd of June 1999. Many of the members of the Chamber were operating
on Moorabbin Airport prior to this date under the management of the Federal Airport’s Corporation.
The Airport’s Act came into effect in 1996 when the Commonwealth granted 99 year leases to the
airports it owned.
The objects of this Act are as follows:
(a) to promote the sound development of civil aviation in Australia;
(b) to establish a system for the regulation of airports that has due regard to the interests of airport
users and the general community;
© to promote the efficient and economic development and operation of airports;
(d) to facilitate the comparison of airport performance in a transparent manner;
(e) to ensure majority Australian ownership of airports;
(f) to limit the ownership of certain airports by airlines;
(g) to ensure diversity of ownership and control of certain major airports;
(h) to implement international obligations relating to airports.
When the airport lease was transferred to the MAC the existing aviation tenants some of whom are
members of the Chamber were under the impression that there would be some protection for their
businesses under the Airports Act, however it appears this is not the case.
The Airports Act since inception requires the Airport Operator Company to submit a preliminary
draft master plan to the government every 5 years (from 2021 it will be 8 years) for ministerial
approval. The current 2021 preliminary draft master plan is in its consultation process at this time
with submissions initially due by the 12th of July 2021 and now extended to 28th October 2021 due
Covid.
In 2020 there was 5 aviation businesses during the Victorian Covid lockdown that were given a 6
months’ notice eviction letter. Currently most airport aviation tenants have a 6-month
redevelopment clause on their leases. If Covid wasn’t bad enough, these businesses had to vacate
their buildings and try and find suitable tenancy on the airport in a very short time frame. The
business involved were not newcomers to the airport some had more than 35 years in operation at
Moorabbin Airport. The reason for their evictions was to clear the way for the Airport Operating
Company to build 3 exceptionally large commercial warehouses. These enormous structures were
apparently in keeping with the 2015 master plan which had been signed off by Minister Darren
Chester.
How is it that none of these businesses or other airport tenants were aware of this development
until the eviction notices arrived? There were fewer than 10 submissions to the preliminary draft
master plan process in 2015, none from those businesses involved. If appropriate consultation had
taken place, or had tenants and operators been provided with a straight-forward, clearly intelligible
draft master plan for the future, rather than what was presented: a complex, difficult to understand,
obfuscating 2015 draft Master Plan: 310 pages of professional complexity beyond the
comprehension of most, then perhaps the assumption may be made that those businesses involved
would have been at the least notified and have a basic understanding of what could take place in the
next 5 years of the master plan. We assert that in the circumstances, they did not.
The Airports Act does provide for consultation on the preliminary draft master plan, and it also
requires —detailed information on the proposed developments in the master plan that are to be
used for: (i) commercial, community, office, or retail purposes; or (ii) for any other purpose that is
not related to airport services. That clearly didn’t happen, and the airport has not been open with
its aviation tenants.
In the submissions to the Future of Aviation Reference Paper, the Australian Airports Association
along with Bankstown and Moorabbin Airports want the government to renew their leases early.
They have called for federally- leased airports to exercise the option to extend their leases and
provide greater certainty for master planning and development on airport land. This certainty is not
being provided to aviation tenants at Moorabbin airport who are given 6-month redevelopment
clauses in their leases.
Over the past 18 months Moorabbin airport has seen aviation businesses displaced, some have also
vacated the airport completely and a large parcel of land used for aviation removed and replaced
with giant commercial warehousing. If the aim of the approved 2015 master plan was to make the
airport more efficient, why do we now have aircraft taxiing up to a dead end on the western apron
and reduced parking for aircraft across the airport site?
In 2019 Moorabbin airport was responsible for 27 % of all the Commercial pilots produced in
Australian along with 67% being produced at commonwealth leased Metro D airports. The value of
these airports to aviation for training pilots, and the economic benefit to the country is being
overlooked for the dollar value of the land the airport site occupies.
Over the past 15 years Moorabbin airport has seen commercial developments surround its
perimeter, some of which create additional wind turbulence for aircraft taking off and landing. All of
which the aviation community has had to suffer. Promoted as the number one training airport the
surrounding development has degraded the student training experience rendering training
operations grounded on certain days due to wind shear from the additional buildings.
General aviation could almost be considered a cottage industry, lots of small businesses run by
people with passion and enthusiasm to deliver strong outcomes for the industry. The one thing that
unites them is their place of business, which by design is an airport. Airports are vital pieces of
infrastructure and governments would be served well by forward thinking and protecting their
assets from overdevelopment.
2021 sees new and emerging technologies in the aviation space and reservation of land such as
airports should be at the forefront of government policy. You wouldn’t put a warehouse in the
How is it that none of these businesses or other airport tenants were aware of this development
until the eviction notices arrived? There were fewer than 10 submissions to the preliminary draft
master plan process in 2015, none from those businesses involved. If appropriate consultation had
taken place, or had tenants and operators been provided with a straight-forward, clearly intelligible
draft master plan for the future, rather than what was presented: a complex, difficult to understand,
obfuscating 2015 draft Master Plan: 310 pages of professional complexity beyond the
comprehension of most, then perhaps the assumption may be made that those businesses involved
would have been at the least notified and have a basic understanding of what could take place in the
next 5 years of the master plan. We assert that in the circumstances, they did not.
The Airports Act does provide for consultation on the preliminary draft master plan, and it also
requires —detailed information on the proposed developments in the master plan that are to be
used for: (i) commercial, community, office, or retail purposes; or (ii) for any other purpose that is
not related to airport services. That clearly didn’t happen, and the airport has not been open with
its aviation tenants.
In the submissions to the Future of Aviation Reference Paper, the Australian Airports Association
along with Bankstown and Moorabbin Airports want the government to renew their leases early.
They have called for federally- leased airports to exercise the option to extend their leases and
provide greater certainty for master planning and development on airport land. This certainty is not
being provided to aviation tenants at Moorabbin airport who are given 6-month redevelopment
clauses in their leases.
Over the past 18 months Moorabbin airport has seen aviation businesses displaced, some have also
vacated the airport completely and a large parcel of land used for aviation removed and replaced
with giant commercial warehousing. If the aim of the approved 2015 master plan was to make the
airport more efficient, why do we now have aircraft taxiing up to a dead end on the western apron
and reduced parking for aircraft across the airport site?
In 2019 Moorabbin airport was responsible for 27 % of all the Commercial pilots produced in
Australian along with 67% being produced at commonwealth leased Metro D airports. The value of
these airports to aviation for training pilots, and the economic benefit to the country is being
overlooked for the dollar value of the land the airport site occupies.
Over the past 15 years Moorabbin airport has seen commercial developments surround its
perimeter, some of which create additional wind turbulence for aircraft taking off and landing. All of
which the aviation community has had to suffer. Promoted as the number one training airport the
surrounding development has degraded the student training experience rendering training
operations grounded on certain days due to wind shear from the additional buildings.
General aviation could almost be considered a cottage industry, lots of small businesses run by
people with passion and enthusiasm to deliver strong outcomes for the industry. The one thing that
unites them is their place of business, which by design is an airport. Airports are vital pieces of
infrastructure and governments would be served well by forward thinking and protecting their
assets from overdevelopment.
2021 sees new and emerging technologies in the aviation space and reservation of land such as
airports should be at the forefront of government policy. You wouldn’t put a warehouse in the
MTF...P2