PLANE AND GAIN FOR THE WEST

A FULLY developed Western Sydney Airport could inject $22 billion into the economy and create another 60,000 jobs.

However, it must take care to avoid the mistakes of other “second” city airports around the world, which have fallen to earth after much fanfare at takeoff.

As plans for the region surrounding the Badgerys Creek site flourish, a report by economic strategists and advisers AlphaBeta has cast doubt on the government’s plans to launch the airport as an “overflow”.

“There is a strong economic case for raising ambition levels for Western Sydney Airport to transforming this from that of an ‘overflow’ airport to becoming an ‘Aerotropolis’, a much larger scale airport model closely integrated into local commercial activities and residential approaches,” the report said.

The current plans are for Badgerys Creek to be an overflow airport similar to Avalon in Melbourne, with planned capacity for 10 million passengers and 220,000 tonnes of cargo. It will only transition to a full-service airport when projected demand exceeds Sydney Airport’s capacity.

But Andrew Charlton, cofounder of AlphaBeta, said an “Aerotropolis” model can create six times more economic impact and 10 times more jobs than an overflow airport. “For the benefit of the people of NSW — and in particular Western Sydney — we shouldn’t let this slip us by,” Dr Charlton said.

“To unlock this opportunity, Australia and NSW’s economic strategies must be closely interlinked with the airport ... That kind of joinedup thinking is at the heart of the success of international models like Singapore’s Changi and there is no doubt we can excel at that too.”

The keys to making the airport boom from day one are rapid transport connections, government leadership and planning and strong links to industry.

Food production and export, advanced manufacturing, science and technology and leisure industries are set to boom around the airport. It’s understood Liverpool Council is hoping to ramp up food production in the area.

A report to be launched by the council next month is expected to point to Australia’s growing airfreight — driven in part by demand from Asia — as a big opportunity for the area when the airport is built.

Western Sydney Airport’s 24-hour operations will help it attract airlines and dedicated freight carriers, the report is likely to say, without

diverting any food freight from Sydney Airport.

Sydney University, which owns land at Luddenham, is considering plans to transform it into hi-tech manufacturing hubs. Professor David Reilly, director of the Microsoft Quantum Lab at the University of Sydney’s Nanoscience Hub, said Sydney could lead the world in developing the new technology. “We’re going to be the front-runners of this technology,” he said.

Sydney Business Chamber, Western Sydney Director David Borger is gunning for a big name architect to design the airport terminal building, singling out worldfamous architect Norman Foster of Foster + Partners, who is designing seven Sydney Metro stations.

“This is an opportunity to design an airport that’s unconstrained by heritage and history and we should be constructing Australia’s best airport,” he said.

But Western Sydney also needs to be careful to avoid the fate of overseas duds like Mirabel airport in Canada and Ciudad in Spain. Mirabel in Montreal, which opened in 1975, was supposed to see 40 million passengers annually by 2025. But the airport was cut-off from the city, with poor transit links and it was shut to all air traffic in 2004.

For the benefit of the people of NSW — and in particular Western Sydney — we shouldn’t let this slip us by Andrew Charlton, AlphaBeta co-founder