7 April 2009

Canberra airport sorts out its financing - big changes planned

| johnboy
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The Australian reports that The Darkness On The Edge Of Town (aka the Canberra Airport) has secured the $350 million in financing which it needs to make all its dreams come true:

    Launching the start of construction on the airport’s new environmentally friendly southern concourse terminal, Mr Byron said the project was back on track after problems linked to the global financial crisis.

    The Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac and German financier WestLB have all agreed to provide more than $330 million in credit to fund the project, dubbed AirVolution.

    By the middle of next year, Canberra Airport will feature a four-storey carpark with covered access to the terminal and no roads to cross.

    Long taxi queues on a wind-swept footpath will also be a thing of the past, thanks to the country’s first fully enclosed taxi rank.

    By the project’s 2012 completion date, travellers would benefit from the installation of international capabilities at the airport, including immigration and customs, more than double the number of check-in counters, triple the baggage capacity and quadruple the airline club lounge areas.

UPDATED: Chief Minister Stanhope has applauded the planned development.

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Adza said :

Funny…. so many people against extra, bigger planes coming on the flight paths, yet everyone supports a new terminal which makes this happen.

I guess everyone wants the convenience of a nice terminal, extra flights etc but no one wants the planes over their backyard.

Maybe you missed the whole ‘Tralee’ argument for the last few years in the ACT? We have a flight path that comes in over empty paddocks and a firing range from the north, no houses there yet. The problem isnt bringing the planes into the backyards, the problem is the Tralee developers putting the backyards under the planes… then complaining about how its unfair they have to put up with planes, and the ‘burden’ should be shared among everyone.

On a similar topic.. what ever happened to the proposed williamsdale airport? Last I heard, the money had been ponied up, the approvals were all done, and it was just waiting to be announced.. however this was several years ago. If you move the GA traffic out of Snowtown, there’ll be a lot more capacity (landing-slots) for the proposed international aircraft.

Sorry, just to clarify – it’s not at all uncommon to find road crew contractors from out of town.

Contractors I’d say, Ant.

Yep, Sepi, I’m sure there’s something more to it, and that might be it. Of course, building their McBuildings at Brindabella/Majura should generate as many jobs, but you won’t see the local media questioning what they’re told.

An interesting snippet on the “joooooobs” thing. There’s a mob currently engaged in stuffing around on the Fairbairn/Pialligo roundabout that is soon to be traffic lights. A local business got fed up with their “traffic management” that led to traffic being backed up half way up Beltana Road, and went and remonstrated with the men working on the intersection. One exclaimed “there’s businesses up there? We didn’t know that. We didn’t think there was anything up there”. Which suggests that this team are from out of town. I hope.

So, we are evidently exporting jobs. Or Stanhope’s Move to Canberra thing is working. Either way, it’s so-far not a very good thing.

Maybe they are striking while the iron is hot, and ‘jobs’ are all important, as the financial crisis bites. They might be more likely to get their 24 hour frieght plan going if unemployment is high.

Word (good word)has it that they discovered some time back taht non=airport activities (ie property development) were WAAAY more luctrative than air ops. Hence the furious property development and almost zero airport expenditure. I’m not sure what they’re up to with this, possibly appeasing the Dep’t of Transport who have knocked them back on recent proposals because the staff are sick of the traffic mess and being unable to get taxis to/from the airport for travel to meetings.

Swaggie said :

Evil, I suspect the Office Buildings and retail outlets, or “Crap” as you so eloquently describe it, generate the income that enables the terminal work to go ahead.

The last financial report that was made available showed that 75% of Snowtown revenue was generated by non-airport sources, it looks like Snow had a long term plan going on.

abc said :

QF will have the right end of the new building and VJ the other, so it’ll be a swap.. Right end will be built first, so it’ll be a bit cramped while they build the other end for Virgin/Tiger… And they both want the middle gate… that’s the one you can see through the whole building.. hence in the video from the airport the plane is shown as a Canberra Airport 737…

I expect that it’ll be used as “anyones” gate. Similar to the way gates at Adelaide are assigned to virtually any airline. Yes, DJ has one end and QF has the other, but I’ve been on many a QF flight to Adelaide which has used the DJ end of the terminal.

When I first saw the video and saw the Plane with a blue tail all I could think was “Why do they have an Ansett plane in there”.

I don’t see a very fast train in those pictures…

Gungahlin Al12:13 pm 08 Apr 09

the ever-flourishing Brand Depot

HAHAHAHAHAHA

About bloody time. The plans look like we might finally be brought into line with Syd and Melb re picking up / dropping off passengers – no need to pay to do it.

The major source of revenue for airports is terminal rent – airlines, car hire companies etc pay to operate in the terminal, landing fees – based on the size of the aircraft/passenger numbers depanding on the contract, retail operations – Sydney aiport currently has the highest rent for a square metre of any retail space in Australia and parking/ taxi pick up fees.

Yes they are a licence to print money and yes it is about time we got what we are paying for!

A big investment. Well, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to the modern air industry in the next few years if (when) oil prices change. They might have a new location to allow the ever-flourishing Brand Depot to expand.
Hopefully their next plan will be a new ski resort to compete with Corin Forest.

This better mean the start of International flights. Even if it is only to New Zealand or something like that. The pictures look impressive.

Wow, Immigration and Customs! Excellent…just a shame no one has any reason to staff or require them, coz we are still a provincial backwater when it comes to getting OS

QF will have the right end of the new building and VJ the other, so it’ll be a swap.. Right end will be built first, so it’ll be a bit cramped while they build the other end for Virgin/Tiger… And they both want the middle gate… that’s the one you can see through the whole building.. hence in the video from the airport the plane is shown as a Canberra Airport 737…

Still Snowtown ++++++++++++

ant said :

look at Salt Lake City airport, so see how another regional city got it so right.

While I don’t disagree with the sentiment, comparisons between Salt Lake City airport and Canberra airport are probably not fair.

21 million people (2008 figures) fly through Salt Lake City airport each year on direct flights to over 110 destinations. It is the 22th busiest airport in the world (based on aircraft movements in 2007). This is what being a hub (for Delta and SkyWest) in the US hub-and-spoke aviation system does to some ‘regional’ airports (otherwise why would Atlanta be the busiest airport in the world?)

Canberra Airport on the other hand has 3 million flyers going to 10 destinations and doesn’t come close to making it on the list of busiest airports.

There must be a money-making angle in there somehow. Maybe he’s going to charge admission to it, or charge people for the length of time they spend in it or something. Pay toilets?

They’d be well-served to go have a look at Salt Lake City airport, so see how another regional city got it so right. It works, someone really put some thought into it. The approach road takes you in one end, and out the other, it’s a one way loop.

as you drive in, each lane has a giant sign over the top saying where it will take you, eg “rental car dropoff”, “passenger pick up”, “parking”, etc. And the best thing, a park and wait. This is a carpark just on the edge, where you can pull in, and watch giant LED screens updating with flight info. When it says you can pick up people off the flight you’re waiting for, it means their baggage has decanted and they’re out.

You can phone them, tell them which number to wait by (or they’ll tell you) and then you drive back onto the road again, and get them. There’s a series of numbers from 1 to 8 on the kerbside, so you can easily arrange where to be. Works a treat. Most amazingly user-friendly airport I’ve ever seen.

multi story car park how much? $20 per day or per hour

Funny…. so many people against extra, bigger planes coming on the flight paths, yet everyone supports a new terminal which makes this happen.

I guess everyone wants the convenience of a nice terminal, extra flights etc but no one wants the planes over their backyard.

Come to think of it, it’s not really that funny… just typical behaviour.

Check out the following, some images showing what they want –

http://www.canberraairport.com.au/air_newTerminal/photogallery/main.swf

All I can say is I’m looking forward to using something better than an “upmarket shed” as the airport. Bring on 2012… 🙂

A fully enclosed taxi rank? I think I’d prefer the windswept footpath to being bathed in LPG fumes…

If I didnt have to wait ages for a taxi I would care either way.

As for sources of income, I’m sure they’d charge admission to the terminal if they could get away with it.

Gungahlin Al5:49 pm 07 Apr 09

Without a source of income??? An airport has money producing sources on a par with having their own mint on site. Without any bloody office developments. I’m with Evil on this one. Beautiful buildings before a decent terminal was a twisted priority. To be corrected now and that is good for all of us who use the place.

Some things should never be privatised. Major transport infrastructure, hygiene services (sewage treatment, water, etc), telecoms backbones, and so on.
IMHO.

Evil, I suspect the Office Buildings and retail outlets, or “Crap” as you so eloquently describe it, generate the income that enables the terminal work to go ahead. Hard to see any banking business lending any airport group anything without a source of income other than airline fees in time of recession.

A fully enclosed taxi rank? I think I’d prefer the windswept footpath to being bathed in LPG fumes…

About time they spent some money on the bloody terminal instead of building more crap around the rest of The Kingdom of Snow.

AirVolution? Laaaaame.

Great news for Canberra. Well done Canberra Airport!

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