[Peetwo]

Catching up with the Yaffa -

First (via Avbiz) from agent 86 in his weekly wrap, on the triple-A conference:

Airports Association conference provides snapshot of industry

This week’s 2016 Australian Airports Association national conference in Canberra was well organised and attended, with more than 500 people at the National Airport Industry Awards night at Parliament House alone.

The conference made appropriate use of a beautiful city’s attractions, with networking events at the National Museum, Australian War Memorial and Parliament House.

It was another lesson in the sheer diversity of the industry and the elements to be managed in making a successful and efficient airport.

This was neatly illustrated by awards night master of ceremonies and comedian Vince Sorrenti, who made hay from the fact that Hobart Airport’s echidna tracking and relocation project was nominated for a national award. I’m sure the Hobart team was quick to educate Vince about the industry’s focus on the balance between tarmac safety and environmental sustainability.

Other entrants in the awards illustrated that airports are working on ways to make many more pieces of the puzzle more efficient and sustainable, from Sydney’s electric vehicles to Emerald’s LED lighting and Brisbane Airport’s reconciliation action plan, devised by working with traditional owners and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employees.

The conference themes echoed those of other aviation industry events of late. Many speakers touched on a new focus on customer service, usually underlined by new digital systems and data collection as enablers offering new insight in to the minds of customers.

The inexorable rise of unmanned aerial vehicles also gained plenty of air time, both from the perspective of safety risks to existing operations and, as alluded to by Department of Infrastructure secretary Mike Mrdak, their potential to create new business models and methods of service delivery in a slew of industries.

Growth and investment were also hot topics, including airports investing and innovating to meet the expected influx of visitors as Asia grows and China overtakes New Zealand as Australia’s largest single source of inbound passengers.

The projected boom in Asia, coupled with the perception that the Asian market may be about point to point airline services rather than simply hub to hub, means more Australian airports are working up a business case to add “international” to their titles.

Congratulations to AAA CEO Caroline Wilkie and her team on a successful conference, and we look forward to the 2017 event.

Read more at http://www.aviationbusiness.com.au/opini...MgdDD1p.99

Next the latest from Hitch in the 25 November LMH...

As predicted, CASA has pushed out the ADS-B deadline for private aircraft flying IFR to 2020 to match the USA and EASA dates. There is still some doubt that doing so will have the effect of making units and installations cheaper, but it will ease a bit of the burden on avionics engineers and owners by giving them more time to get it done. By that scoreboard, we can probably call this a win, but only if everyone doesn't wait until the drop-dead date to get their aircraft fitted. Doing that would only delay the crush by three years, not alleviate it, which is what I suspect this deadline change is really intended to do.

Airservices Australia has proposed that the Class E airspace overhead Avalon be removed and the Class D be extended all the way to the bottom of the Class C. A quick refresher: VFR aircraft don't need a clearance to transit Class E, but IFR aircraft do. At Avalon, the convention has been to call Avalon Approach and let them know when you're entering the Class E and what you're doing. It was not a request for a clearance.

"..This is airspace design going backwards..."

The system worked well as it removed a massive block of CTA for VFR flights transiting from Melbourne to points east and vice-versa. Now it seems Airservices want control back, reinstating and even extending the CTA block. This is airspace design going backwards. Class E was the correct classification and having it there didn't cause a rash of accidents or near collisions. There once was a time when several Class D towers were covered with Class E, but after a trial period Airservices got scared and wiped them all out. The Class E at Avalon was put in place only after the Class D tower was established. And so it should have been; it was the right thing to do. It's telling that in their proposal, Airservices has not included an increase in safety as one of the benefits. Given that, should the change be made at all?

Congratulations to the general aviation and regional airports that took honours at the National Airport Industry Awards. It's good to see smaller airports getting some recognition when efforts are being put it to upgrade them. Special kudos, I reckon, for Hamilton and Southern Grampians Shire Council, they've shelled out quite a bit on an airport that has no RPT. The awards are run by the Australian Airports Association (AAA), which also commissioned a report into the economic effects of regional airports. It was completed and tabled earlier this year, so I'll go through all that soon and give you the basics of it.

In more good news for regional airports, Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Darren Chester has committed the Federal Goverment to funding upgrades. Just as well, because a there is a lot of work needed at regional airports, and the current owners – generally the municipalities – often aren't up to the task, most often because they don't want to be. This is probably one of the many challenges Chester referred to in his speech to the AAA on Wednesday. With the release of the economic report, AAA might have a weapon in their hands to show some councils that their airports can be valuable assets rather than the millstones that so many councils treat them as.

May your gauges always be in the green,

Hitch

Read more at http://www.australianflying.com.au/the-l...tST9SXA.99

 
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