Secondary Airport Options For South East Queensland - Case Study Example

Topic: Secondary Airport Options For South East Queensland Name: Institution: Student ID: Tutor’s name Date of Submission: Table of Contents Introduction 3 1.Analysis of the Brief 3 2.Stakeholder Identification 4 2.1.Passengers 4 2.2.The Federal and State Government 5 2.3.The Existing Brisbane Airport 5 2.4.The Aviation Industry 5 2.5.Surrounding Residents 5 2.6.Potential Ancillary Businesses 6 2.7.Operators of other modalities of transport 6 3.Needs Analysis 7 4.Identification of Primary Attributes for the proposal 8 5.Identification of Analogues 9 6.Filtering of Examples 9 7.Analysis of Limitations 10 8.Presentation of Options 11 8.1.Gold Coast Airports 11 8.2.Sunshine Coast Airport 13 8.3.Toowoomba Airport 13 9.Conclusion 14 10.References 15 Introduction Brisbane Airport in Australia is regarded as one of the major airports in the country; consequently its popularity in air transport is high among users of airports such as business travellers, tourists and government functions such as delegates who use it to travel to other countries. The impact is that the airport is approaching its capacity and there is the possibility that most customers will not be attended to for quality services such as travelling and keeping of their baggage. As a result, it has been found necessary to upgrade the surrounding airports in Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airports and Toowoomba airport. The focus of this proposal is to ensure customers who cannot be served by Brisbane Airport can use these secondary airports. The challenge is that the ability of these secondary airports is subject to their working conditions. This implies that they have to acquire a particular status in terms of facilities, safety measures and infrastructure before they can serve the purpose of primary airports. Consequently, it has been found important to upgrade existing facilities at Gold Coast airport, Sunshine Airport or construct a new facility in Toowoomba. It is speculated that when these airports are upgraded, they will be able to meet the capacity requirements for secondary airports. 1. Analysis of the Brief The Federal Government has embarked on reform of the aviation transport sector. Brisbane Airport has been observed to reach its capacity and there is a constraint in the surrounding land that inhibits its expansion (Young and Wells, 2011). Because of the anticipated increase in demand for the airport, a number of options have been selected for upgrading of secondary airports within South East Queensland in order to alleviate the load on Brisbane Airport and to assist in creation of competitive and diverse aviation transport sector in Queensland. The options that have been selected are upgrading of the Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airport and construction of a new facility in Toowoomba. The main elements that the proposals tries to untangle include the observation that there are many customers who use Brisbane Airport and it is approaching its capacity and there is the need to create options where excess customers and airlines can be served. Thus, Brisbane Airport needs to look for additional airports to accommodate its customers to prevent the chances of them going to other competitor airports (Yigitcanlar, 2010). This ensures the airport does not lose its customers, a factor that can result into losses to it In addition, the status of operation of Airports are supposed to comply with the recommendations of the Brisbane City council, State and Federal Government before it can be issued with certificate of operation. 2. Stakeholder Identification Stakeholders refer to the people who will either be directly or indirectly affected by the activities at the airports. It also includes people who will be affected by activities in the airports. Some of the stakeholders will include the following. 2.1. Passengers The upgrading of airports at Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Coast Airport and a new facility in Toowoomba will result into increased capacity of the airports to accommodate a large number of passengers. In addition, the facilities will be of high qualities and passengers will be able to get high quality service similar to services offered at the main primary airports. 2.2. The Federal and State Government The Federal and State government will ensure planning policies for upgrading the airports (Sulzmaier, 2001). In addition, during upgrading of the airports, there will be the need of the airports management to seek the authority of Brisbane City Council, ensure they comply with environmental legislations of the state and Federal government and also maintain safety measures according to Federal Government requirements. 2.3. The Existing Brisbane Airport The Brisbane airport will be the main stakeholder in the upgrading of the airports in Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airport and Toowoomba Airport. This is because most of the customers who will not be able to use facilities at the main airport will be transferred to other airports that have been upgraded. This will ensure it does not lose the customers to other competing airports. 2.4. The Aviation Industry The main stakeholders that will be affected by upgrading of the airports will be other airports that will need to connect with the airport, employees in the upgraded airport who would benefit from upgraded facilities at the airport and airlines that will be introduced to the airports when they are upgraded (Roberts, 2006). 2.5. Surrounding Residents The residents in the surrounding areas will be affected by the level of noise produced from aircrafts that will be using the airport. 2.6. Potential Ancillary Businesses Other ancillary businesses in the nearby areas will also benefit from upgrading of the airports in Gold Coast, Sunshine and Toowoomba by benefiting from increased number of customers who will be passengers that have used air transport through the upgraded airports (Plunkett, 2009). Furthermore, there will be improved transport such as access roads and railways from the airports. 2.7. Operators of other modalities of transport The operators of other modes of transport such as trains and vehicles will be able to get passengers who will use the airports. When access roads to the airports are upgraded and more roads constructed to the airports. When roads and railways to and from the airport will be improved and the main beneficiaries will be operators of vehicles and trains. The graph below shows the extent to which stakeholders will be impacted by upgrading of the airports. Figure 1. The Extent of Impact of upgrading of the Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airport and a new facility in Toowoomba on the stakeholders. Adapted from Miller, J. B. 2002. Case studies in infrastructure delivery. Boston, Mass, Kluwer Academic. 3. Needs Analysis The upgrading of the airports in Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airport and a new facility in Toowoomba is focused on meeting a number of needs. The operators of Brisbane airport have observed that the airport is reaching its capacity and there is the need to meet the increasing traffic in terms of the number of passengers and airlines. In addition, there is the need to improve the facilities at the secondary airports to meet the operation requirements of secondary airports (Parkin and Sharma, 1999). There is also the need to ensure Gold Coast airport, Sunshine airport and a new facility in Toowoomba are accessible by roads and railways to facilitate transport of passengers to and from the airports. The upgrading of these airports will also address the increased demand for air transport in Australia. The graph below shows a comparison of air traffic in the major airports in Australia. Airport Passengers (million)38 Aircraft Movements (thousands) Car parking prices39 1 hour short stay 1 day long stay Sydney 32.4 267.4 $12 $25 Melbourne 24.4 184.0 $12 $25 Brisbane 18.7 154.1 $10 $25 Perth 9.4 77.8 $5.40 $17 Adelaide 6.8 73.4 $4 $20 Gold Coast 4.6 32.0 $4 $16 Cairns 3.7 39.1 $3 $14 Canberra 3.1 44.1 $2.50 $17 Hobart 1.9 14.3 $5 $13 Darwin 1.5 22.2 $5 $12 Figure 2. Comparison of traffic in Australia’s busiest Airports. Adapted from Gwilliam, K. M., & Bofinger, H. 2011. Africa's transport infrastructure: mainstreaming maintenance and management. Washington, D.C., World Bank. 4. Identification of Primary Attributes for the proposal In order to ensure the above needs are attained, the proposed airports will be upgraded by considering a number of attributes. For example, the Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Airport and Toowoomba Airport will be expanded to increase its ability to handle more flights and serve greater number of passengers. Furthermore, the facilities at the three airports will be upgraded. The upgrading process will involve improving the runways, safety measures at the airports and building facilities that will enable handling of greater number of passengers during processes such as ticketing and baggage handling. In addition security equipment will be improved in the airports (Miller, 2002). Accessibility to the airports will need to be improved by upgrading roads and railways and constructing more roads and railways in anticipation of increased traffic at the airports. The airports will also connect with Brisbane Airport and in Australia and airlines to ensure excess traffic from Brisbane Airport are directed to them when Brisbane Airport reaches its capacity. 5. Identification of Analogues There are examples of secondary airports in other parts of the world that have been upgraded to achieve the operating competency of primary airports. In addition, the airports have contributed to reduced traffic in the major airports in their regions of operation. For instance, in England secondary airports such as Gatwick, Stansted and Luton have been upgraded to ease traffic on Heathrow Airport (Hoel, Garber and Sadek, 2011). These airports are also able to handle international flights and the main areas of upgrading have been focused on expanding their land areas and improving the safety procedures at the airports. Access to the airports has been improved and there are many railways ad roads that lead to these airports. In addition facilities such as buildings have been improved and a large number of passengers can be served. Storage facilities for baggage have been improved and security and safety measures have been improved. 6. Filtering of Examples The analogues provided above provides a number of lessons that can be leant to create confidence on the feasibility of upgrading of the Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Coast Airport and a new facility in Toowomba.For instance, Stansted Airport has building designs that have been made to achieve customer experience through the design of high buildings at the airport, buildings having open spaces and places that allow easy movement of traffic at the airport. The buildings in this airport is also constructed with reduced physical separation between the buildings to facilitate activities such as ticketing, retail, departure and collection of baggage at the airport (Friedman, 2006). These deign processes have enable effective operations at Stansted Airport and Luton Airports. The cases of Stansted and Luton Airports also provide an example of the importance of creation of access roads to and from the airports. There is high accessibility of these airports by roads, railways and passengers who have used the airports are able to travel to their respective destinations without difficulties. This is a factor that should be considered during upgrading of Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Coast Airport and the new facility in Toowoomba. It can also be learnt that effective operations of activities at the airports is subject to well-constructed runways that enable aircrafts of a variety of sizes to use the runways. This factor has enabled these airports to host various airlines that have a variety of aircrafts (Dun and Bradstreet Corporation, 1999). The upgrading of Gold Coast Airport, Sunshine Coast Airport and a new facility in Toowoomba should account for upgrading the runways to facilitate movement of aircrafts in these airports. 7. Analysis of Limitations During the process of upgrading the secondary airports in Gold Coast, Sunshine and Toowoomba, limitations experienced in typical airports will be observed. For instance, despite the improvements that will be made in these airports, it will not be an assurance that passengers will be willing to use them. This is because every person has a preference for the type of plane he/she prefers to travel on, the type of airport to use and the time of travel he prefers (Dempsey, 2000). The other inherent limitation that will result from upgrading of the airports is that there will be increased noise in the surrounding areas and residents will be made comfortable by noise from landing and leaving planes. In addition, there will be high capital outlay required during upgrading of the airport coupled with the fact that the airport operation is subject to continuous maintenance that will be costly to manage. The airport industry is also highly volatile and investors are uncertain about their investment in the industry. In addition, there are already well established primary airports in Australia and it will be difficult for the upgraded airports to emerge from secondary level to compete favorably with other primary airports. Thus, it will not be easy to get targeted profits from operation due to competition from most established airports in the country. 8. Presentation of Options In order to meet the needs identified above, three options have been suggested for upgrading. These options will address the capacity, demand and other needs that cannot be accomplished by Brisbane Airport in number of ways. The following are the weaknesses and strengths of the three portions. 8.1. Gold Coast Airports The main strength of this airport is that a railway line will be constructed when the Gold Coast Line is extended. This will facilitate transport to the airport. The runway of the airport straddles five suburbs of twin cities across the border of Queensland and New South Wales (Clark, 2004). These runways provide efficient ways for aircrafts to use during landing and taking off. The weakness of the airport that will make it not achieve the needs of the upgrading process is that it is located near the coast and its expansion will not be possible due to lack of land. In addition, it is located far from other major airports and it will be difficult to connect with other airports after its upgrading. Gold Coast Airport Statistics[3] Year Total Passengers 2000-01 1,888,008 2001-02 1,736,004 2002-03 2,177,602 2003-04 2,504,001 2004-05 3,141,771 2005-06 3,515,021 2006-07 3,777,856 2007-08 4,323,355 2008-09 4,618,200 2009-10 5,186,147 2010-11 5,486,072 Table 1. Gold Coast Airport Passenger Statistics between 2000 and 2011. Adapted from Egger, S., & Mcclymont, D. 2004. Melbourne. Melbourne [etc.], Lonely Planet Publications. Figure 3. Location of Gold Coast airport in Australia. Adapted from: Queensland. 1996. Annual report. [Brisbane], Main Roads. 8.2. Sunshine Coast Airport The main strength of the airport is that it has two runways that will cater for increasing traffic of airlines, there are parking aprons that a number of airlines can use for parking purposes and it is located in the mainland where there is a vast land that allows for its expansion to meet the increasing air traffic. The main weakness of the airport is that it needs to be upgraded and a huge capital outlay will be required before it can serve the increasing traffic and traffic demands. It is also located near major airports such as Wellcamp Airport and it will be difficult to compete favorably in the aviation business with other airports. 8.3. Toowoomba Airport The strength of the airport that will enable it address the capacity issues at Brisbane airport is that the runways have been extended and the airport is able to accommodate an increasing traffic. The weakness of the airport is that there is a conflict between Army Aviation Center and elements in the community during attempts to expand the airport (Capehart and Middelkoop, 2011). This conflict is likely to make the efforts to expand the airport unworkable during improvement of the current runways. In addition, there is inadequate vehicle routs to and from the airport and constructing new roads will require huge capital outlay. Figure 4. A map of Toowoomba airport. Adapted from Roberts, B. 2006. Urbanization and sustainability in Asia: case studies of good practice. Manila, Asian Development Bank. Funded by Queensland Government Project Commencement March 2013 Expected Project Completion June 2014 Consistent with Infrastructure Australia’s Strategic Properties SP2-Increase Australia’s Productivity Develop our cities and Regions Method of Procurement Managing Contractor (open tender) Contractor Boral resources Table 2. A project Outline for upgrading of Gold Coast airport, Sunshine Airport and a new facility in Toowoomba. 9. Conclusion This paper shows that when secondary airports are upgraded, there are a number of advantages that can be obtained. For instance, it is possible to avoid high competition from other primary airports and the resulting losses in financial gains. Proper upgrading process involves ensuring physical facilities such as runways, ticketing rooms and roads that lead to the airports are properly maintained to attract customers who need to travel by planes. During planning of upgrading of airports, the planners need to benchmark from some of the successful secondary airports in England. These include Stansted, Gatwick airports and Luton airports. The design of customer service in these airports is almost equal to those of primary airports and they have been competitive as the main airports in England. By using the infrastructural design systems used in these airports, South east Queensland airports can become equally competitive in handling more flights as primary airports in Australia. Airports in general are important resources for a country in terms of generation of income for the government, creation of employment opportunities, facilitating transport to overseas countries and improvement of infrastructure. 10. References Ashford, N. J., Mumayiz, S. A., & Wright, P. H. 2011. Airport engineering: design, planning, and development of 21st century airports. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. Australia, E. 2010. Holiday in Queensland. 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