"It's an exciting time to be in aviation," says Koen Rooijmans, Netherlands-born managing director and chief executive officer of Brisbane Airport Corporation.
Major airports across the world are racing against time to incorporate into their expansion plans new, demanding requirements constantly being thrown at them by the rapidly changing dynamics of the aviation industry characterised by new and varied ranges of aircraft types, changing airline economics, next generation technologies for passenger processing and security.
An aerial shot of Brisbane airport
Additionally, the corporations that run these airports have had to think beyond the core business of landing and shuffling planes and providing passenger amenities to include a wide range of infrastructure and lifestyle products and services revolving around air travel.
In keeping with the changing dynamics of the aviation industry, the business of airports is growing into its own new complexities and presenting new challenges to their managements.
Says Rooijmans: "Short term-ism of airline planning versus necessarily long-term airport planning requirements present a very big challenge."
Like other major airports in the South Pacific region, Brisbane airport has embarked on a major expansion programme to meet the region's rapidly growing passenger and freight traffic needs.
"Nadi-Brisbane passenger traffic has grown 27 percent while traffic between Brisbane and New Zealand airports grew 20 percent.
"Last year nearly 1.2 million people travelled between Brisbane and NZ," says Rooijmans.
Seven airlines fly to as many as eleven Pacific islands destinations from Auckland. Traffic from the Pacific islands comprises a significant component of traffic at its airport.
AUCKLAND
Auckland Airport CEO Don Huse says passenger traffic growth between New Zealand and the Pacific Islands has been positive.
"The new low cost airlines like Freedom Air, Pacific Blue and Polynesian Blue have contributed positively to this growth," he told Islands Business.
Though Sydney is ahead of Brisbane airport in terms of traffic, Brisbane happens to be the larger airport in terms of area. In the last year or so, Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) has added a new parallel runway and opened a new building for an airline service provider in the airport precinct.
The corporation has announced a programme of A$1.5 billion in investments in terminals, roads and runways with a focus on capacity building for the long-term.
"These investments include major expansions to the International and Domestic Terminal to deliver modern, efficient and well-designed facilities for airline customers and for the record number of visitors to Australia's fastest growing airport," says Rooijmans. BAC won the Australian Airports Authority award last year in addition to the Global Eagle Award for world's best privatised airport.
SYDNEY
Sydney Airport, the region's busiest, is also planning for a major capital works upgrade of its international terminal and other airfield works known as Project STAR (State-of-the Art Renewal). Over the next five years it plans to spend about $500 million.
Both Sydney and Brisbane have geared up for the advent of the biggest passenger aircraft ever built -the Airbus 380.
"We are doing upgrades to runway, taxiways and terminal apron to the cost of $50 million. The terminal building is also to be upgraded for Airbus A380 with dual aerobridges," says Rooijmans.
Sydney Airport Corporation Ltd (SACL) is undertaking a A$100 million comprehensive construction programme targeted at accommodating the giant passenger airliner. New aerobridges will service three access doors on the Airbus A380 - one to the upper deck and two to the lower.
Over the next five years, Sydney Airport will have modified six gates to ensure it has the latest facilities to cope with the Airbus A380 services and other new generation aircraft expected to be announced by international airlines QANTAS, Singapore Airlines and Emirates in 2006/2007.
In Auckland, New Zealand's largest airport has announced its own expansion plans. Following major renovations in the last 12 months, departing and arriving passengers are now segregated according to international security requirements.
This has meant adding new passenger facilities like more check-in and immigration counters as well as creating a new airside retail space.
Auckland has also implemented a 100 percent baggage screening procedure and increased the number of departure gates from 9 to 13. Future plans include the building of a second pier to accommodate more aircraft. In January, the airport announced the building of a shopping hub between its two domestic terminals at a cost of around NZ$17 million. The airport is undertaking measures to cater to the Airbus A380.
Future plans include further development of the airport precinct concept with the addition of infrastructure facilities for airline-related service industries like catering, freight handling and business parks as well as lifestyle amenities.
Most airport managers Islands Business spoke with revealed different levels of involvement with smaller airports in the Pacific islands. "We work very closely," says Rooijmans.
"We recently had a delegation to Airports Fiji Limited discussing financial management of airports. We work together on issues like planning, management, airline relationships, marketing, property development and policy."
Auckland Airport's Huse says they have similar ongoing programmes of cooperation with a number of smaller airports in the region where officials visit for consultations and discussions. But both Brisbane and Auckland said that they do not run formal consulting programmes for smaller airports as they don't see it as a core function.
Regional security initiatives are handled at the government level, says Rooijmans.
But airport managements are themselves responsible for the implementation of security measures in the terminal facilities and precincts.
Hundred percent baggage screening has already been implemented at Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland airports in line with international requirements at the cost of millions of dollars (Sydney airport's system alone cost A$100 million). Sydney will spend an additional almost A$20 million a year on security.
Additional measures include ongoing personnel training and review of security arrangements not just within the airport premises but also along the perimeter. Many of the airports are also in the process of rolling out additional closed circuit TV cameras so as to minimise any security blind spots.
Trials for biometric security procedures are already underway at Sydney airport for the past few months.
Auckland Airport's Huse says that similar trials will get underway at his airport in the first half of this year.
Managing demand and capacity and implementing new projects and security procedures in tight frames are among the biggest challenges these busy airports face. Most are funding their growth plans with a combination of internal accruals and debt. Their reliance on non-traditional and innovative revenue streams is increasing.
Retail space, lifestyle-related products and services, business parks, increased parking facilities, entertainment avenues and other value-added services are what these airport managements are increasingly looking at to augment their traditional revenue that comes from an assortment of fees for the use of the airport as they try to stay ahead in the race to offer a better passenger experience and add to their corporate bottom lines at the same time.
