Qantas is planning a significant patch-up job on its over-crowded Perth domestic terminal, spending around $50 million in what is considered an interim step which could put off a major redevelopment decision for as much as seven years.
Qantas is planning a significant patch-up job on its over-crowded Perth domestic terminal, spending around $50 million in what is considered an interim step which could put off a major redevelopment decision for as much as seven years.
As the domestic airport bursts at the seams from burgeoning traffic – up almost 15 per cent to nearly 5.9 million passengers for the past financial year – Qantas has found itself at the centre of a blame game regarding a key piece of corporate and tourism infrastructure.
With a new and expanded security processing area, bigger departure area which includes room to expand Qantas club facilities and add a Qantas Chairman’s lounge, and one new aerobridge, Perth Airport welcomed the airline’s move.
But the plan, which will coincide with $19 million in works by Perth Airport, appears to again delay a decision about the future of the entire domestic airport.
“It was acknowledged that these works would provide a good deal of comfort for about seven years,” a Perth Airport spokesman said.
In March, tourism sector leaders told a WA Business News luncheon forum that the existing airport was a blight on WA's reputation, and that the airport’s owners should fast-track plans to integrate the international and domestic terminals.
A decades-old master plan has long envisaged co-locating the domestic terminal with the existing international terminal to consolidate services and better manage what has become an eight million passenger a year operation.
However, a late 1980s decision by the then Labor federal government gave domestic terminal leases to the airlines that existed then to 2018. Qantas did not fly domestically then, but has ended up holding the lease over what is known as terminal two in Perth.
In contrast, Virgin Blue and other airlines have shorter-term arrangements with Perth Airport, as does Qantas at the international terminal.
That impacts the power base in the airport’s decision-making.
The signs of growth have been there for some time, and the shortcomings of the existing terminal have been recognised by business and political fliers, as well as tourists.
Flight frequencies have not changed as dramatically as passenger numbers because airlines have been able to use bigger planes, with Boeing 747s employed on the Perth-Sydney and Perth-Melbourne routes to cope with demand.
A consequence of this is Perth Airport has to spend money strengthening areas around the domestic terminals to handle these and other aircraft.
Tourism Council WA CEO Ron Buckey described the expansion as a stop-gap measure that was long overdue.
“We just hope that at some stage we could get the amalgamation of the Perth terminals,” he said.
