Australia's Labor To Nominate Second Major Sydney Airport

Tuesday January 13, 8:32 AM 

Australia's Labor To Nominate Second Major Sydney
Airport
Yahoo News

CANBERRA (Dow Jones)--Australia's major opposition
Labor Party said Tuesday it will nominate its
preferred location for a second major Sydney airport
at its national conference at the end of the month. 

Labor leader Mark Latham, who is preparing for a
federal election expected in the second half of 2004,
said the left-leaning party will fulfill a commitment
of his predecessor Simon Crean to identify its
preferred airport site at the conference beginning
Jan. 29. 

But Latham told Sydney radio station 2GB that the site
won't lie within the Sydney basin. 

"Our environment, air and water quality concerns have
got to come first," Latham said. 

"We don't want to repeat the noise pollution mistakes
of the third runway (at Sydney Airport) and we don't
want to threaten any aspects of air and water quality
in the Sydney basin," he said. 

The subject of a second major airport in Australia's
largest city sparked fresh tension within the Labor
Party last year when then leader Crean opposed
Badgery's Creek in Sydney's outer west as a potential
site. 

Crean's decision attracted heavy criticism from Labor
politicians, particularly those whose electorates are
located in inner city areas that experience the worst
of the noise and pollution from Sydney airport. 

Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal-National
coalition has promised to review the issue of a second
major Sydney airport in 2005. 

However, last year Howard said Sydney probably won't
ever require a second major aviation terminal, citing
advice that indicated Sydney airport could handle
traffic demands out to about 2020. 

Sydney Airport Corp., the operator of Sydney airport,
said in a 20-year draft master plan issued in mid-2003
that passenger traffic at Australia's major aviation
gateway would triple to approximately 68.3 million by
2023/24. 

The study also projected the airport would experience
slower annual growth of 2.4% in aircraft movements
from 2003-04 to a forecast 412,000 movements by
2023/24. 

Sydney Airport Corp. Chief Executive Max Moore-Wilton
said at the time that the airport had both the
capacity and infrastructure planning in place to
handle Sydney's projected growth in domestic and
international passenger numbers and aircraft
movements. 

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