Regional airlines renew calls for more slots at Sydney airport

The rules for managing slots for landing and takeoff at Australia’s busiest airport are stymieing services to regional areas.

A Virgin Australia regional ATR-72 shares the ramp with a 737-800 at Sydney airport. Picture: Stuart McEvoy.

The rules for managing slots for landing and takeoff at Australia’s busiest airport are stymieing services to regional areas, an influential parliamentary committee has been told.

Virgin Australia has reignited debate about reforming slot ­arrangements at Sydney Airport by warning of a situation where slots for NSW regional services during popular travel times are ­“extremely limited”.

The commonwealth legislation for slot management at Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport guarantees slots for regional services but caps their number during peak periods.

As well, the number of slots at the airport for regional services during peaks has fallen by 42, or 10 per cent, since 2001. The concern is that where peak slots for ­regional services have gone to non-regional services, they can’t be changed back.

“Timings in these periods are necessary for the operation of ­viable services by airlines, as they enable day trips to be undertaken by travellers originating both in Sydney and regional communities,” Virgin has told the Senate inquiry into air services to rural, regional and remote areas.

“Accordingly, the current leg­is­lative arrangements equate to less competition, fewer choices and potentially higher airfares on routes between Sydney and destinations in regional NSW until Western Sydney Airport ­becomes operational.”

Virgin says that while the commonwealth rules “were introduced to safeguard the operation of regional services, in reality they are inhibiting the growth of such services in the state”.

“To address this problem and support the expansion of regional services in NSW, the legislative framework should be amended to allow any slot held by an airline to be used to operate a ­regional or non-regional air service, as is the case in other states and territories, or alternatively, to allow non-­regional slots to be converted to regional slots,” the submission says.

The comments have renewed calls for regional airlines to be given better access to landing slots into  during busy periods.

Airspeed Aviation managing director Ben Wyndham said he had tried for years to start a service between Narrabri and Sydney but “we gave up basically because slots are too hard”.

“If we could secure commercially viable slots into Mascot on a year-round basis, we would have had financial backing available. But because we couldn’t get that certainty, as a start-up, ­nobody was willing to help fund our expansion into regional scheduled air services.

“We shelved the airline project,” he says, but notes the firm has doubled its charter operations over the past six months.

A NSW parliamentary inquiry in 2014 recommended pushing the federal government to ­remove regional turboprop aircraft from the movements cap at Sydney airport and ensure that the access of regional regular passenger transport services to the airport was preserved.

NSW Transport Minister ­Andrew Constance said he was calling on Canberra to create five new slots exclusively for quieter ­regional aircraft.

“The biggest ­impediment to growth in regional aviation is the cap on slots into Kingsford Smith,” Mr Constance said. “We don’t agree with kicking this down the road until Western ­Sydney Airport is open. The federal government has the power to fix it now.”

A spokeswoman for Infrastructure and Transport Minister Barnaby Joyce said he was aware of the issue facing Virgin.

“Slots at Sydney airport for ­regional services are fully utilised during peak periods but unfortunately the current legislation does not permit the conversion of non-regional slots to regional slots during the peak period,” the spokeswoman said.

The government “is absolutely prepared to explore opportunities to increase flexibility for airlines where this improves access for ­regional NSW communities into Sydney”, she said. “Of course, any changes to legislation will need a bipartisan ­approach.”