JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2018 87
do auto-releases for departures, and
simultaneous landings,” he said.
Noise minimisation has been top
of mind within BAC since the project
was first mooted and protests emerged
over the potential noise effect on
residential suburbs outside the current
01/19 footprint. It is quick to point
out that the new runway provides a six
kilometre straight line buffer between
the 01 landside threshold and the
nearest residence, more than any other
capital city airport in Australia.
BAC says its first preference for
airport operations is for aircraft
to arrive and depart over Moreton
Bay via SODPROPS (simultaneous
opposite direction parallel runway
operations) and DODROPS
(dependent opposite direction parallel
runway operations). This will be most
common at night and at weekends
when traffic volumes and weather
conditions fit the profile.
It says the predominant mode
during the day and evening will be
19 and 01 parallel operations with
hundred metres from that historic
landing point.
Now more than 20,000 people
turn out each day to work in what
is a suburb in its own right: the
largest airport in Australia by land
size covering 2,700 hectares and
home to more than 400 businesses,
from aircraft and freight handling
to warehousing, manufacturing,
recreation, tourism and retail,
including hotels and Brisbane’s only
24-hour supermarket.
That number is forecast to jump to
50,000 by 2029 (passenger numbers
are also forecast to increase to 35
million by 2023 and more than double
from the current 22 million by 2034).
If nothing else it shows that behind
the statistics there is a big human
story and that goes, too, for the
runway project. BAC says the runway
involves 2,700 construction jobs with
a further 7,800 jobs projected for the
Brisbane/Moreton region by 2035 due
to the increased capacity.
Beyond the airport, the development
dovetails with major advances in
Brisbane tourism infrastructure such as
the $3 billion Queens Wharf integrated
resort and entertainment hub being
built in the CBD on the north side of
the Brisbane River.
For Coughlan, it all goes to
underscore the importance of the
runway project.
“It’s not just a runway for BAC,”
he said. “If you look at developments
like Queen’s Wharf and state tourism
development, they are all dependent
on us having an efficient airport.
“It’s a runway for our industry, our
state and more than that.
“It’s a runway for Australia.”arrivals and departures to/from ports
in the north and west using the new
runway, and arrivals and departures
to/from ports in the south and east
continuing to use the existing runway.
The arrival of heavy international
aircraft on the new 19 Right does
throw up the issue of taxi times
given the end of the runway will be
the furthest possible point from the
international terminal and a long
way (literally) from the trundle across
to the terminal from the current 19
stopping point.
Coughlan looks at it this way: “In
01 Left mode you are looking at a taxi
time for internationals of around 12
to 15 minutes which is quite normal.
When they are in a 19 Right mode they
will have about a 20-21 minute taxi. I
know a lot of people say that’s a long
taxi, but when we benchmarked that
against a lot of the major hub airports
of the world it was quite normal to see
about 20 minutes’ taxiing.
“And the one thing we say with
ours is that at least the aircraft will
be continually moving. In a lot of the
busy airports the aircraft stop and
start because of cross runways or
conflicting taxiways.”The human element
It is just short of 90 years since
26,000 people turned out from all
over Brisbane to see Charles Kingsford
Smith land his Fokker V.II Southern
Cross at Eagle Farm at the end of the
first trans-Pacific flight. A monument
to the achievement of Smith and his
crew – Charles Ulm, James Warner
and Harry Lyon – stands proudly
just off the approach road to today’s
Brisbane Airport and just a few‘They will
operate as
independent
runways.’
PAUL COUGHLANSand is poured onto the new
runway site.BRISBANE AIRPORTThe new 3,300 metre
long Runway 01 Left/19
Right will sit to the
north of the existing,
soon-to-be-renamed
Runway 01 Right/19 Left.
BRISBANE AIRPORT