Regional Aviation Association of Australia (RAAA) CEO Rob Walker has expressed his organisation's concerns over the south-east VFR corridor proposed for Bankstown.
The concerns were contained in an RAAA submission to CASA's Office of Airspace Regulation made on 22 October this year.
The proposal envisages an outbound lane running from Revesby Station to Casuarina Oval and Woronora Cemetery, and an inbound lane from Engadine to Ridge Golf Course, Sandy Point Mine and Brighton Lakes Golf Club, with Class C airspace overlying at 1500 feet.
"The RAAA has concerns that the proposed altitude (surface to 1500 ft above mean sea level) and the narrowing of the corridor near waypoints SPTM [Sandy Point Mine] and CASO [Casuarina Oval] may have a negative impact on safe operations due to the potential high air traffic density and the types of pilots flying in that volume of airspace," Walker wrote.
"For example, there will be a large number of trainee and inexperienced pilots who will use the corridor. Careful consideration needs to be given to the mixed levels of flying experience and aptitude in being able to safely fly and navigate the proposed VFR corridor.
"Linked to this there may also be an increase in pilots breaching controlled (Class C) airspace inadvertently. This will dramatically increase the requirement on Airservices to manage the corridors. The challenge of navigating the corridor will further increase if there is any weather passing through."
Walker said the RAAA was also concerned the corridor would have other detrimental impacts on Bankstown, including:
- ground congestion and delay at Bankstown
- a likelihood of canceled operations
- increased flight training costs
- longer transit times increasing fuel usage and carbon emissions.
Although the proposal is for a VFR corridor, RAAA members also identified a potential issue for IFR pilots.
"Some of our operators are also concerned that there may be impacts on their IFR operations both in and outside of tower hours," Walker said. "It has been their experience at other locations like Archerfield that IFR procedures can't be accessed outside tower hours.
"If this were to occur at Bankstown the proposed Sydney Basin airspace may have them being forced to operate via the VFR corridors. Mixing aircraft of different sizes and speeds in a narrow corridor is a serious safety concern.
"The RAAA would respectfully request that CASA and Airservices provide assurance that IFR flight planned aircraft can access all the published arrival and departure procedures as appropriate and not be forced to use the proposed VFR corridors at any time of day or night."
Changes to the airspace design in the Sydney Basin have been attributed to the new Western Sydney (Nancy-Bird Walton) International Airport, which is due to start operations in 2026.
Those changes will see the volume of Class G airspace substantially reduced and new access lanes also created to the north-east of Bankstown Airport.
Consultation on the proposal ran from 27 August to 22 October.