Deputy Premier Roger Cook has expressed frustration at the delay in getting Qantas to move to the eastern side of the airport, warning that it is holding WA back.
State Tourism Minister and Deputy Premier Roger Cook has expressed frustration at the delay in getting Qantas to move to the eastern side of the airport, warning that it is holding Western Australia back.
Qantas currently uses T3 and T4 on the western side of Perth Airport but the airport's Masterplan has the national airway relocating to a new terminal to built onto T1, the international terminal.
"We have some real struggles here at Perth Airport because of our disconnect between our international terminal and Qantas's domestic terminals,” Mr Cook said.
“We can't bring too many flights through that boutique international arrival hall ... at terminal four, so we have to content ourselves at the moment with bringing most flights through terminal one and trying to encourage Qantas Airways to make more significant shifts to relocate here to terminal one completely.”
“[I] hope Qantas has the same ambitions as we do to grow Perth, WA as the western gateway to Australia, and we're a little bit frustrated with the dawdling that's going on at the moment with Qantas.
Mr Cook warned there was a range of issues that frustrate dthe rollout of the potential for Qantas flights flying in and out of Perth.
“I want to encourage Perth Airport and Qantas to resolve those issues as soon as possible,” he said.
“It's holding WA back. It's holding us back in terms of our tourism, our international business communities and our international education opportunities. So we just want those issues resolved as quickly as possible.”
There are two major disputes that relate to pricing and a date for Qantas to move to the eastern side of the airport.
However, looming large is the more serious issue of an agreement for a parallel runway.
As flagged by Business News last month, a second parallel runway is needed as most landing/take-off slots taken in peak midweek periods.
Resource projects worth over $100 billion, employing tens of thousands and producing billions in royalties, are in jeopardy because of the delay in getting both the final environmental approval for the runway and from Qantas.
The airport is now at capacity at peak periods during the week and late last year airlines were briefed by the airport that there were no more slots available for their resource customers for fly-in, fly-out charters in their preferred flying times.
Perth Airport has two cross runways which can, depending upon winds, be used concurrently to slightly ease congestion, but this is not a solution.
Without a second parallel runway, the airport cannot support the next round of resources development.
Business News has obtained a confidential weekly flight schedule map that was shared with airlines, showing that there are no take-off or landing slots from Monday through Thursday at the peak times of 5.30am to 7.30am.
The congestion doesn’t end there, with no landing slots for between 9.15am and 11am and almost no slots between 5.15 pm and 7.45 pm.
According to airline sources, almost 40 flights are already on the waitlist for better timings.
Airlines were told that a few international services would be approved but domestic flight requests would be rejected.
In February, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said the airline would love to move over to a new terminal development but was still in negotiation with the airport on a long-term deal.
“We're hoping that we can reach an agreement because it will unlock a huge amount of growth for Qantas that we're very keen to do,” Mr Joyce told 6PR.
Perth Airport is on track to record a bumper year for passengers with 6.83 million using the airport to December 31 2022.
If the trend continues the FY2023 total will nudge 14 million passengers, just behind the peak of 2014, of 14.9 million.
Aircraft movements are also up at 68,694 for the six months with 136,000 expected for the full year.
