Sydney Airport’s plan for integrated international and domestic terminals has been included as a key feature of its preliminary draft master plan, released on Wednesday for public consultation.
The airport says that its plan for integrated terminals, rather than separate international and domestic terminals as exists today, has received “strong stakeholder support”, and would see “swing gates that can accommodate both international and domestic/regional aircraft in each of the terminal precincts”.
Notes the draft masterplan: “By facilitating Code F international aircraft (such as the A380) operations in the North East Sector as well as the current North West Sector, Sydney Airport will have the ability to substantially increase its capacity to accommodate Code F aircraft well beyond the PDMP (Preliminary Draft Master Plan) planning period.
“Further, the ability to provide swing gates at both of the proposed terminal precincts provides additional opportunities to efficiently increase Sydney Airport’s capacity to handle the growing demand for Code E (such as A330 and B787) aircraft. Where possible the larger gates will also be configured to accommodate multiple smaller aircraft.”
The airport says that: “The passenger experience will be improved through enhancements to ground transport, terminal and passenger processing facilities. In particular those transferring between international and domestic/regional flights will benefit from improved connectivity by the reduction of inter-precinct transfers.”
Another notable feature of the plan is a new one-way ring road for the T2/T3 precinct by 2018 and a new road and exit for T1.
“Numerous government studies have shown that while we have runway and apron capacity for several decades to come, it is ground access to the airport that is impacting on customers,” Sydney Airport CEO Kerrie Mather said.
“Aviation has changed dramatically over the past decade, with significant advances in aircraft and navigation technology and airlines forming market-changing partnerships to create virtual networks. We’re responding with flexible facilities to meet these changes and provide a superior passenger experience.”
Specifically the PDMP details changes to the terminal infrastructure as:
“Reconfiguration of the existing T1 Pier C to facilitate handling of international, domestic and regional passengers;
“Development of a new terminal pier by extending T1 to the south west to provide additional capacity and flexibility;
“Development of swing international-domestic gates;
“Development of gates that can service multiple aircraft types;
“Apron reconfiguration to cater for the greater variety of operating aircraft, including implementation of a dual Code C taxiway to increase the handling capacity for domestic and regional aircraft operation,” and;
“Improved contact gate capacity across the airport to accommodate the larger international Code F aircraft and increased flexibility to accommodate the
up-gauging of domestic aircraft to Code E.”
The document also notes that: “Sydney Airport is planning to develop an Experience Centre that members of the community can visit to find out more about the airport and the aviation industry. Visitors will be taken on an engaging journey behind the scenes of one of the world’s busiest airports.”
Sydney Airport is seeking public feedback on the preliminary draft master plan after which it will submit a draft master plan for government consideration. The PDMP can he downloaded from the Sydney Airport website here.
