FOR MEDIA WEDNESDAY, 15 APRIL 1981
M. A. N. S. STUDY
( Letter to NSW Premier)
The attached letter has been sent to the Premier
of New South Wales, Mr Wran.
PRIME MINISTER CANBERRA
APR 18
My dear Premier, It is now more than four years since we
agreed to the formation of a joint committee of
Commonwealth and State officials to conduct the
Major Airport Needs of Sydney ( MANS) Study. The
committee's task was to review the likely future
regular public air transport needs of the Sydney
region and to recommend to the two Governments a
suitable strategy for airport development, including
associated surface access and land use.
During this period the MANS Committee has
made available to our Governments and to the general
public a number of documents setting out the results
of the various investigations and analyses undertaken.
The last of these documents was the Abstract Report,
incorporating specific recommendations, submitted
by the Commonwealth members of the MANS Committee in
December 1979. Since then the Commonwealth has been
unable to advance the dialogue further.
There are two major and distinctly separate
matters to be urgently resolved. They are:
1. the determination and securing of a suitable
site for the construction of a second airport
of international standard in the vicinity of
Sydney to meet the contingent demands of the
community from the end of the century and beyond.
Such an undertaking would take between 12 and
years to complete. It would involve, in
1981 values, a cost of at least $ 700 million
and the expenditure of very large amounts in
the development of surface access. There
would also be substantial compensation for
dwellings and other buildings demolished
en route.
2. the provision of adequate facilities in the
Sydney area to \ meet the expanding needs of
Kingsford Smith Airport during the substantial
period which must inevitably elapse before a
new international airport is operable.
I stress that the two are not alternatives.
They are mutually complementary. There must be a
long-term development of -a new. airport associated
with a much more immediate expansion of existing
airport facilities. Sydney will continue,**-to suffer a growing
loss of tourist activity as the result of the
necessary diversion of international aircraft to
either Melbourne or Brisbane. There will also be a
detrimental effect on freight operations. This
diversion will increase unless appropriate facilities
are speedily provided.
Perhaps even more important, since it
vitally affects New South Wales country-dwellers,
is the fact that the limitation of existing facilities
at Kingsford Smith Airport will soon cause a severe
cutback in commuter aircraft from that airport.
Moreover, more than 30 per cent of commuter
passengers hold tickets for connecting flights for
other destinations. There is the very urgent question, too,
of the provision of ground facilities for the early
introduction of wide-bodied aircraft on domestic
routes. The provision of these facilities cannot be
appropriately planned for unless the long-term
strategies for Kingsford Smith Airport are resolved.
All these matters have been well known forsome
years. The only practical solution which has
been advanced has been the MANS Committee proposal
for a close-spaced parallel runway at Mascot.
Your own Government has focussed solely
upon the identification of possible sites for the
longer-term second airport. It has offered no solution
to the needs of Sydney during the intervening period.
The Commonwealth Government is deeply
concerned at the likely detrimental consequences to
the people of New South Wales if the current impasse
is allowed to continue.
Both the long-term and short-term issues
require the close co-operation of both Commonwealth
and State Governments for their resolution.
My Government is convinced that the
recommendation of the'-Commonwealth members of the
MANS Committee for the immediate planning for the
construction of a close-spaced parallel runway is
the only possible solution to the most urgent of
the two problems. 3.
I invite you and your Government, therefore,
Sto. co-operate with the Commonwealth in the determination
of a site for a future second airport and in the
rapid development of the close-spaced parallel runway.
Yours sincerely, N
Fraser)
The Hon. N. Wran, M. L. A.,
Premier of New South Wales,
SYDNEY N. S. W. 2000