Sunshine Coast Airport’s new runway temporarily closed due to reported sinkhole

Calls from the aviation industry to have the old Sunshine Coast Airport runway reopened after a sinkhole opened up have been rejected.

The Sunshine Coast Airport has ruled out reopening its old runway after a reported sinkhole caused a temporary closure of the new $334m tarmac.

Members of the aviation industry called for the reopening of the decommissioned runway after the fault forced the temporary closure of the Marcoola airport’s only runway on Tuesday.

A Sunshine Coast Airport spokesman said via a statement that a small fault in the pavement on the shoulder of the runway was identified on Tuesday.

“A temporary runway closure was enacted in between passenger flights while repairs were completed,” they said.

“This resulted in no impact to passenger or emergency flights throughout the remainder of the day with all scheduled flights continuing to operate as normal.”

Sunshine Coast Airport runway expansion May 2020

They said the area, which was away from where aircraft take off and land, was repaired.

They said the closure would not have affected the ability for aeromedical or emergency aircraft to land.

Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Australia chief executive officer Ben Morgan said the decision to close the former runway was “shameful”.

He said the decommissioned 18/36 runway provided better access for light and general aviation and should have never been closed.

The runway was decommissioned in late-2020 in line with the Sunshine Coast Council’s detailed design process for the new runway project, which would allow for larger aircraft to use the airport.

“Council confirmed that wide-bodied aircraft parking would need to be located at the eastern side of the terminal to meet airspace protection requirements,” an airport spokesman said.

“This meant that important safety standards could not be maintained on Runway 18/36.”

The runway was decommissioned and about a kilometre of it was repurposed as a taxiway.

“There are thousands of airports around the world that have intersecting, cross runways … it is of no greater risk than a single runway airport,” Mr Morgan said.

“It should be reopened … it has the support of the national peak body and I doubt there would be any aviation body that would argue against that.”

Similar calls for the old runway to be reopened were also made in May, 2021, by Flight Path Forum.

Flight Path Forum, which had primarily focused on routes flown by aircraft, called for consideration to be given to reopening the old runway 18/36, in response to safety and design concerns flagged by local aviation operators.

It comes as the due date looms for the final payment from airport operator Palisade Investment Partners, to Sunshine Coast Council, for the airport expansion project.

The $305m payment is due on June 30, 2022.