Central Coast Council late last month adopted a master plan for Warnervale that will see the runway upgraded and landside areas set aside for commercial development.
The plan, which covers the period 2025-2030 has also created a more secure future for the Central Coast Aero Club (CCAC), which has been under a cloud for several years as an anti-airport faction within the council worked to restrict or close Warnervale.
Developments under the new master plan include upgrading the runway to Code 1B and installing temporary lighting, which will enable medevac and firefighting aircraft to use the airport. The plan also will safeguard areas to enable further upgrades to Code 2B if needed, which would mean regional airlines such as Dash-8s could use the airport.
"The Central Coast Airport Master Plan offers a clear and strategically aligned framework, taking into account regional economic conditions and trends over the next decade," the executive summary reads. "By laying the foundation for the Airport’s future development, the Master Plan strengthens its role as a regional hub for economic growth and diversification.
"Importantly, the plan ensures flexibility to adapt to changes within the aviation industry, while maintaining a steady course in terms of long-term development.
"This will provide certainty regarding the Airport’s future, solidifying its importance and ensuring it remains well-positioned to meet the needs of the region for decades to come."
CCAC has freehold over a parcel of land and a licence agreement to use the airside area that expires next year.
CCAC General Manager Andrew Smith told Australian Flying that the master plan was a step forward for the airport and the aero club.
"The master plan ensures that the council is now taking the airport seriously, and is including it in their future for the Central Coast," he said. "Of course, the detail of how it will be implemented, and the mix of businesses and their layout is important, however the most important step is purely that the plan ensures a future for the airport, and by default the CCAC as well."
CCAC has harboured ambitions to upgrade their club facilities and further develop the freehold land, which Smith now believes they can do with some confidence.
"We have been unable to attract the funds required for significant upgrades due to the uncertain future of the airport," he says. "Our next step is to renegotiate our licence agreement to use the airport; it currently expires in 2026.
"Once we get a long-term licence deed, we can seek funding for infrastructure upgrades. We intend on building a raft of new hangars of differing sizes – from T-hangars to large communal hangars and private hangars.
"Our plans also include doubling the size of our current maintenance hangar (we currently are highly constrained by floor space), and an aviation themed café above a newly designed aero club building with upgraded facilities for our members and the community."
Other key points of the master plan include:
- forecast total movements of 55,356 per year, of which 49% are expected to be touch-and-go operations
- developing an emergency services sector to accommodate air ambulance, fire services and police air wing
- three environmental protection areas
- resolving encroachment issues by ensuring the airport is fully contained within one clearly-defined parcel of land.
The master plan process for Warnervale began in early 2022 after the NSW government in 2020 repealed the Warnervale Airport (Restrictions) Act 1996, an instrument that capped movements at the airport to 88 per day, and applied other restrictions.
That opened the way for the council to develop the master plan and signaled a change in attitude towards the airport and CCAC. Even so, the master plan was adopted by a vote of 8-7 in favour, meaning there are still a faction within Central Coast Council that is opposed to the airport.
Critically, the council has left the door open to selling the airport in the future, stating that, "A further report will be presented to Council with additional options that are available to be explored after the implementation actions are completed."
"If the Airport were to be sold as an airport, and the private owners were focused on creating and maintaining a successful and equitable aviation precinct, we would be supportive," Smith said.
"It may very well be that Council would be better placed being the regulator of the site, but hand off ownership or management to a private entity.
"Of course, there are advantages to ownership by the council as well, and we would be happy for Council to continue owning the site and managing it, as long as long term protections are put in place in either scenario to guarantee the site remains an airfield and is to be used for aviation related activities."
Asked whether he thought adopting the master plan was a sign that Central Coast Council was now airport-friendly, Smith responded with some caution.
"The council is almost equally split between councillors who are for the future airport and sensible development, and those against," he said.
"There is currently a very slight majority of those in favour, which is positive when compared to the last make up of councillors; however, given it is so tight, the aviation community must remain vigilant and speak up if the council make up changes and the airfield once again becomes threatened by the extreme anti-aviation philosophy of the previous council.
"We are now optimistic about our future, however that is tempered by realism – we understand that a slight change to the current council could take us back to the retrograde politics of 2017 where we nearly lost the airport."
The full Central Coast Airport Master Plan 2025 can be downloaded from the Central Coast Council website.