By Luke Voogt
A proposal for Victoria’s third airport in Melbourne’s south-east “would be a huge waste of money”, according to Avalon Airport chief Justin Giddings.
Mr Giddings dismissed the private proposal as no threat to Avalon Airport.
“It’s an incredibly optimistic proposition and one that I’m not taking too seriously,” he said. “I just can’t imagine the government would (support) that.”
Paragon Premier Investment Fund this week announced a letter of intent from an unnamed financier to build an airport about 75km south-east of Melbourne’s CBD.
The organisation will present the $7 billion private proposal to the State and Federal governments next week.
Paragon managing director Alande Mustafa Safi said the airport would be finished by 2020 and would be at least as big as Tullamarine.
But Mr Giddings said the airport would be small and have only a few flights.
“They’re looking to make more than $350 million a year just to pay the interest – that’s more than Tullamarine Airport makes.”
“But eventually, 20 or 30 years away, (the government) might want to have another airport. So there’s nothing wrong with setting aside land.”
It made more sense to support Avalon, which was doing better than other “second airports” in Australia, he said.
“We’re very close to ports and the proposed Bay West Port. We’ve got great access into Melbourne, Geelong and western Victoria.”
Mr Giddings called on the State Government to build a regional rail link to Avalon.
“It will still be a few hundred million dollars but it will be nothing compared with the billions they’re looking to spend in Tullamarine.”
State and Federal Governments have proposed rail links to Tullamarine Airport for the past 60 years, with recently-proposed projects costed at more than $1 billion.
But Mr Giddings said the Geelong line had the capacity for a regional link, whereas metro lines could not link to Tullamarine without major upgrades.
A stop on the Geelong line “40 minutes” from Melbourne would make Avalon much more attractive to international passengers, he said.
Tourism Minister John Eren said the State Government would continue to back Avalon Airport.
Avalon Airport still had capacity to take more flights but the government needed to plan ahead for aviation as Victoria grew, he said.
