...and from yesterday's Herald Sun:It's flight chaos every night at this Aussie airport
BY ANDREW MACDONALD, THOMAS CHAMBERLIN, ROBYN IRONSIDE From: The Courier-Mail
July 05, 2012 9:49AM
Night-time air schedules in chaos at Brisbane airport Passengers experiencing delays of up to 40 mins
IT'S Brisbane's other airport roundabout - thousands of passengers forced to fly in circles every evening, their timetables hopelessly disrupted.
Flights are being delayed by up to 40 minutes nightly because the airport's two runways are not allowed to operate at the same time after dark.
The peak-hour bottleneck, caused by increasing traffic volumes and the inability to use the airport's cross-runway, at night, has prompted warnings of price hikes for passengers.
The delays cost airlines $180 every minute for fuel alone.
The delays are expected to worsen in coming years with a new parallel runway not due to be completed for at least another six years.
Qantas has called for an overhaul of the air traffic system amid warnings that having dozens of planes circling is putting more strain on air traffic controllers.
Air Services Australia and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority ordered the smaller runway to close at night in 2010 because of the safety risk arising from its proximity to the main runway.
Concerns were raised about the potential for collisions when a light Cirrus aircraft landed on the wrong runway, forcing a Boeing 737 to take avoidance action.
But the delays have been worsening because of an increase in traffic partly due to the mining boom. The number of aircraft movements is expected to surpass 600 a day by 2019, up from 471 this year.
Civil Air Australia president Robert Mason said planes approaching the airport at peak times were regularly placed in one of two holding patterns between Brisbane and either the Gold or Sunshine coasts, with some flights waiting 40 minutes to land.
"Arriving into Brisbane of an evening, it's not uncommon to have multiple holding patterns going and then having eight or 10 in each, and then working backwards from there," he said
"The idea is you don't want to hold them too close in because they're at a lower level and they are burning more fuel but you don't want them so far out that if you have an improvement in weather or conditions, you can't take advantage of that."
Mr Mason said while he understood the decision not to use the second runway, having so many planes in holding patterns was also placing increasing strain on controllers.
"It's not that holding planes is inherently unsafe but you are putting them into closer proximity so a lot more concentration is required to ensure that everything is absolutely spot on," he said.
Aviation/Aerospace Australia CEO Jim Carden said the delays not only had a flow-on effect to scheduling across the national network but could also lead to increases in the cost of travelling.
"They cost the operator in terms of fuel use, which is the biggest and most uncontrollable cost for an airline," he said.
"Any excess use of fuel, such as in an extended holding pattern will certainly not be absorbed by the airline if it is occurring on a regular basis.
"At the end of the day the consumer, the traveller, is the one who ultimately pays when all through the chain we are all paying a little bit more."
Brisbane Airport Corporation has set up a working group with ASA to find better ways to utilise the second runway to tackle future growth.
Qantas Airways is seeking a more immediate response, pushing for a slot management system similar to that used in Sydney where airlines pay for a landing "slot" and, if they miss it, they go to the back of the queue, adding costly minutes to their flight.
"There has been an increase in delays and congestion at Brisbane Airport during peak times and we support the investigation of a new slot management system to help ease this congestion," a Qantas spokeswoman said.
"Slot management systems have been used successfully to reduce delays and aircraft congestion."
Colin Lippiatt from Virgin Australia said the airline was working with BAC, ASA and other stakeholders to "maximise the efficiency of the airport and air traffic management".
"It is a complex task, however, we believe we can make good progress into the future," he said.
The Australian
...and from today's Global Travel Media:Cities brawl over who hates their airport the most
Staff reporters News Limited newspapers July 12, 201211:04AM
FLY-IN, fly-out is turning to fly-in, flip-out as traffic congestion, long taxi lines, exorbitant parking rates and endless queues are increasingly frustrating airport passengers.
Residents of every major Australian city have a list of complaints about their airport’s problems, with developments this week reinvigorating inter-state jostling to be the capital that hates its airport the most.
Just hours after Julia Gillard revealed the flexibility of Brisbane's airport was a major factor in its winning bid to host the 2014 G20 summit, local media revealed growing passenger anger over the inability to quickly drop-off passengers.
And federal infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese said Sydney missed out on the hosting gig, in part, because its airport is too small.
"There needs to be an acknowledgment right across the board that if Sydney is to maintain our position as a global city we do need a second airport, we do need to deal with these infrastructure issues," Mr Albanese said yesterday.
Travellers being dropped at Brisbane Airport are almost missing their flights due to severe congestion at the new drop-off area, the Courier Mail reported today.
The road allows for motorists to stop for two minutes to let passengers out and is currently doubling as a pick-up area, until the new zone opens next month.
But Brisbane is not alone in its congestion problems, with traffic woes inflicting pain on airline passengers across Australia.
Traffic is notoriously bad around Sydney and Melbourne, with cars often banked up for miles along the freeway leading to Melbourne airport during the morning peak of 6am - 8am.
Things often don't improve once inside the airport with complaints about long check-in queues and long waits to get through customs among the top of passenger gripes listed on travel blogs.
Last year Perth Airport was described as the "home of two-hour taxi-line queues, atrocious check-in lines, overpopulated gates and meagre lounges" on a CNNGO list of the world's 10 most hated airports.
Perth came in at number nine on the list with the travel site claiming: "Perth’s brittle facilities can be overwhelmed just by a trio of aircraft arriving within 20 minutes of each other".
Passenger reviews on Skytrax are also not kind to Australia's airports. Passengers ratings rank Perth 4.9 out of 10, Sydney scored 5.6, Melbourne a 6.7 and Adelaide and Brisbane a 7.
Another common complaint about Australian airports is the sting from high airport parking fees.
Earlier this year a Productivity Commission report found passengers using long-term parking were paying as much as $150 a week.
Brisbane topped the list of most expensive long-term parking at $150 a week, followed by Sydney with $122, Perth with $88 and $77 for Melbourne.
But Australian Airport Association’s CEO, Caroline Wilkie said Australian airports were performing well on an international level.
"Australian airports rank highly amongst some on the best airports in the world for customer service," she said.
“Over the past decade Australia’s major airports spent $10 billion to build new terminals, roads, runway and taxiway expansions and passenger facilities, all to improve the passenger experience."
But she conceded work was needed on Brisbane airport to accommodate an influx of passengers for the G20 meeting.
"The Federal Government has cut 70 customs staff from Australian airports over the past year. This was on the back of a shortfall of staff in the first place to meet increasing demand," she said.
"Brisbane airport will need increased customs resources for the G20 event."
Herald Sun
I laugh at how some in Adelaide complain about our airport...but honestly, there is nothing to laugh about what's happening interstate!Perth Airport struggles with bottleneck in the air
July 13, 2012 by William Sykes
Perth airport is facing a bottleneck in the air, causing flight delays for passengers and stress for pilots.
The West Australian newspaper has blown the whistle on the problem, revealing that that air traffic control provider Airservices Australia has admitted the system is failing, with too many pilots forced to declare “fuel emergencies”. The paper got its information from the Regional Aviation Association of Australia, which told its WA members that Airservices had admitted the deficiencies.
The problem, apparently, stems from the Metron system, recently introduced by Airservices to manage Perth Airport’s limited runway capacity.
As the system gives priority to incoming flights originating more than 800 nautical miles from Perth, a flight from say Adelaide gets priority over a flight from Karratha or Albany, the paper reported. The airport has a lot of traffic conveying fly-in fly-out (FIFO) mineworkers to and from points within the 800 nautical mile radius.
At times, so many flights are in holding pattern waiting to land that some run low on fuel, triggering the fuel emergency response which gains them landing priority.
Global Travel Media
Cheers
