Airport contract ready for Badgerys Creek take-off

The government will issue a contract to Sydney Airport by the end of the year to build an airport at Badgerys Creek.

The federal government will issue a 1000-page contract to Sydney Airport by the end of the year to build an airport at Badgerys Creek in western Sydney.

The move will set the ball rolling for the first new Australian airport in a generation to begin serious planning and pre-­construction next year.

Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher yesterday said Luton ­airport in London could serve as a model for Badgerys Creek, suggesting that, at least initially, Badgerys Creek would operate as a holiday airport for low-cost ­operators.

“London is a good example of how demand can be shared in a multi-airport city with secondary airports supporting the total ­aviation capacity, including the growing low-cost carrier market,’’ Mr Fletcher told a Committee for Economic Development of Australia event yesterday.

The issuing of the contract will give Sydney Airport Corporation four months to decide if it wants to take up its first-refusal rights to build and operate the new airport.

It comes after the federal government late last week released a set of more than 40 restrictions to govern the construction of ­Badgerys Creek.

Last week’s release of the operating and environmental restrictions bind any airport developer and operator to comply with them. The rules cover a gamut of conditions including regulations around construction, the disinterment of human remains from local cemeteries and airspace regulations to limit noise pollution on residential areas. Mr Fletcher confirmed take-off and landings would be from the sparsely populated southwest of the runway.

Local council groups such as the Western Sydney Regional Organisation of Councils remain concerned that the final airport plan does not offer residents enough certainty that they will be insulated form the roar of planes.

“This is an airport being ­approved without flight paths, without commitment to a rail line and without a solid plan for jobs,” said Blacktown City Mayor ­Stephen Bali.