[Peetwo]

More Murky dealings rumoured regarding Bankstown.

The word on the street is the development shark that controls the airport has had a "Development" consultant running about the airport valuing leaseholders properties to evaluate them for future "development".
I understand there is a clause in everyones leases that BAL reserves the right to throw people out of their properties if they, BAL, needs the property for other development.
First cab off the rank its rumoured will be Scofields, allegedly being offered a take it or leave it deal to piss off somewhere else because BAL wants to build a road to the new Multi gazillion complex housing the Air Ambulance and police choppers.

Of course a road through there would cut off all the businesses upstream from airside access, including Dick Smith.
If that occurs one can only imagine that a new shopping nirvana is in the pipeline along Marion Street.

As the sharks keep chomping away perhaps the suspicion that the end game will be Bankstown becoming a heliport surrounded by shopping centres starts to become reality.

All conforming with the "Intent" of the Airport Act and the head leases of course.

Wonder which political party received the biggest "donation"??

Also while on the rights of lessees' & users being stomped all over at secondary and regional airports, noticed this thread off the UP:

Jandakot airport rates increased 4.75-5.5%

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FY2017 Landing charges go from $7.77 to $8.20 (+5.5%) per 1000KG (min charge $12.41 goes up to $13 (+4.75%)).

Hardstand parking $2,245.32 to $2360 (+5.1%).

Australian CPI: 1.3% (March-March)

Does that apply to BK as well thorny??

Also from the Oz today it seems the powers to be are discovering other ways to negatively impact on GA in regional areas:

Small flyers priced out of Cairns Airport

The Australian|12:00AM June 17, 2016|
John Ross
Higher Education reporter
Sydney

Cairns Airport said general aviation movements had increased 15 per cent over the past five years. Picture: Brendan Radke

Small aviation businesses at Cairns’s privatised airport are being forced out by untenable increases in rents and fees — sometimes more than 2000 per cent — although the airport operator’s lease obliges it to provide access for general aviation aircraft.

And a local businessman who wants to establish an alternative airstrip says he was warned off by Cairns Airport, which acts as a consultant to the local council.

Industry figures say the airport’s once thriving general aviation precinct is now semi-deserted, reflecting the exodus of small operators from privatised airports around the country. But locals say the change has been particularly hard in Cairns, where flying is part of the city’s psyche.

Cairns is a hub for a Poland-sized region including Cape York, the Torres Strait and the Gulf of Carpentaria. The city’s aviation history stretches back to 1928, when a flying jeweller established the airport on a mudflat.

Local aviators say “ridiculous” landing fees and other charges have now pushed them out of the city, or out of business. “If you didn’t have a parking spot for your aeroplane by 4 o’clock five or six years ago, you’d have to park on the grass,” said Murray Ireland of aircraft overhaulers Aero Enterprise. “Now you can get a parking spot anywhere you like.”

Cairns Airport said general aviation movements had increased 15 per cent over the past five years. “Aircraft parking bays in the general aviation area are well utilised,” said Kevin Brown, CEO of parent company North Queensland Airports.

Mr Ireland said this was because aircraft were taking off as quickly as possible after they landed, to avoid crippling parking fees that had risen up to 2900 per cent after the airport started charging locals at visitors’ rates. Other cost rises have included increases to hangar and office rentals, which have more than doubled overnight. Locals say the airport has thwarted attempts to negotiate group or long-term leases, and tried to install a boom gate so that it could charge them $840 a year for car parking.

Private aircraft owners and two flying schools have relocated to Mareeba, an hour’s drive away. Some small companies have moved their businesses off the airport while others have closed or sold out.

Local airman Mark Stanley said he planned to set up a private airstrip south of the city. “Cairns Airport told me categorically that they intended to stop it,” he said. “They said they planned 10 or 20 years into the future, and it may be in the way of their flight path.”

Mr Brown said the airport had held discussions on a proposed private general aviation aerodrome “but not been presented with any plans to comment on”.

He said the rents, landing and parking fees had been set at ­market value so there was a fair price for tenants and a fair return for investors.

“Some operators did enjoy extremely low rents for many years, but as viable businesses they must be prepared to meet commercial reality,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Queensland Treasury Corporation, which oversees the lease, said it did not impose pricing constraints on the commercial business of the airport operator.

“To the government’s knowledge there is no breach of the lease,” she said.

An industry source said airports were community as well as commercial infrastructure, but small operators tended to get squeezed out.

He said governments could ­explicitly enforce community ­obligations on private owners, ­either through legislation or regulation, but there is a tendency not to do so.

  
MTF...P2