Vote 1 Badgerys Creek Sydney’s next airport

The debate around the future of air travel in Sydney is an ongoing tale of twists and turns. Fergus Neilson steps up to the plate to share why Badgerys Creek is his choice for a new airport.  

Yet again the issue re-oxygenates! It does with each new state premier and every new survey of Australian in-bound tourism numbers. Now given even greater prominence with the threat of a third major airport in Melbourne.

Does Sydney need a second airport? And if so where?

There would appear to be three main schools of thought: a) just make Mascot bigger; b) move to the suburbs; and c) let technology provide the answer.

Make Mascot bigger? Yes, it makes sense from one perspective – there is no other major city in the world with an international airport so close to the CBD. No! However, it doesn’t make sense from the perspective of noise and congestion, in the air and on the ground. Ever tried making a taxi connection (in or out) at around 9:00am or 5:00pm?

Move to the suburbs? Yes , Badgerys Creek makes sense because: a) the requisite land is already in government hands; b) the western Sydney councils love the prospect of jobs, jobs, jobs; c) connections to Sydney’s tollway system could be completed in a heartbeat and, let’s be fair; d) Badgerys Creek, at around 30 km, is marginally closer to Sydney’s demographic dead-centre (just west of Parramatta) than Mascot. The ‘suburban’ alternatives at Wilton and Richmond are seriously hampered by a mix of size, terrain, fog and connectivity.

Let technology provide? Two options are on the table. The first being high-speed train from Canberra or Williamstown. The proponents of this option have perhaps omitted to compare the delta flatlands connecting Pudong and Shanghai with the tortured terrain north and south of the Sydney basin. The proponents of the ‘offshore option’ don’t seem to have addressed: a) that Sydney offshore is not a shallow delta and the volume of dirt required to reclaim an international airport sized piece of land in 30 to 40 metre deep water beggars description; b) the connection issue (whether to reclaimed land or to a floating concrete island) – how are passengers, crew, cargo and ground staff plan to get through Sydney’s coastal suburbs and connect to ‘Ocean One’? It is hard to imagine a six-lane highway through Maroubra.

Sometimes when a problem seems to have no acceptable solution it makes sense to re-consider Occam’s razor “the law of parsimony, economy, or succinctness which states that among competing hypotheses, the one that makes the fewest assumptions should be selected.”

The simple question is whether or not Sydney actually needs to cater to increased levels of air traffic. Most pundits would say –Yes! Which leads to the second simple question – Where? To which the simple answer (requiring the fewest assumptions) would be Badgerys Creek. Plain and simple.
 

Fergus Neilson is Co-Founder of The Futures Project. Fergus brings a wide range of business and life skills gathered from a career in the armed forces, investment banking, the United Nations, McKinsey & Company and private equity investment. Always sceptical of solutions imposed ‘top-down’ and increasingly frustrated by the default position that invariably sees cleaning equipment bought in only after the proverbial has hit the fan. Fergus can be contacted at fergus.neilson@thefuturesproject.com