Chinese airlines stress need for second airport in Sydney

Chinese aviation leaders have urged the Coalition to fast-track the Western Sydney Airport.

China Eastern’s Kathy Zhang: ‘The second airport is very important if we are opening the skies.’ Picture: Hollie Adams.

Chinese aviation leaders have urged the Coalition to fast-track the Western Sydney Airport to take advantage of the new open skies policy between the two countries and accommodate growth in the number of mainland tourists.

The Australia-based managing directors of China Eastern, Sichuan and Xiamen airlines yesterday said the Badgerys Creek site should be operational as soon as possible but it was vital that governments provided the right infrastructure.

Under the Coalition’s plan, the airport will be up and running by 2026 after nearly five decades of negotiations.

Tourism Australia recently ­reported that 1.184 million Chinese visitors arrived in Australia over the year to October, up 20.1 per cent on the same time last year, making it the second largest source of tourism after New Zealand.

China Eastern’s Oceania general manager, Kathy Zhang, said Sydney’s Mascot airport was ­operating almost at capacity, which made starting new flights into the city difficult.

The airline began its new daily flights between Brisbane and Shanghai this week after trialling a three-times-a-week route earlier this year.

Seven Chinese airlines run 167 flights from 13 mainland cities into Australia each week.

“The second airport facility and infrastructure is very important if we are opening the skies,” Ms Zhang said.

“We still need to have the ­infrastructure in places like the ­hotels, the terminals for the flights to operate. Those facilities have to go before we fly directly. The development of that ­infra­structure has been slower than we expected, and it’s one of the major constraints.”

Ms Zhang said the Shanghai-based airline could not increase the number of flights into Sydney given the traffic backlog.

“If they don’t have enough space for us to fly more directly we might choose other cities,” she said. “At Sydney airport now the takeoff and landing slots are ­already full in the peak hours; there is no space to grow.”

Sichuan Airlines’ Australia general manager, Wen Xiang­long, said: “I think it’s quite ­important for Sydney to build a new airport.

“There are seven Chinese carriers flying here and I can see in 2017 more and more carriers will want to come to Australia. It’s very important for Sydney to get another international airport; the earlier that it’s built the better.”

Chen Yanghua, general manager of Xiamen Airlines, which began flying into Australia a year ago, said local governments needed to provide more accommodation for the rising number of inbound tourists from China.

“We are looking forward to the new airport and it will be providing more slots, which is very ­impor­tant for us, so the sooner the better,” he said. “Just recently, I have had several friends find it difficult to find accommodation and the prices, especially in Sydney, are very high, often more than $500 a night.”