West's new terminal gives carrier room to move

He jokes that Perth Airport has been like one of those puzzles where you move the squares around to make a pattern or words but without the empty space to make the movement possible. 

That has changed with the opening of T2 on the other side of the airport and the decision to eventually develop the international terminal into a joint domestic-international facility, starting with domestic digs for Virgin. 

"Actually what Perth Airport is starting is the domino effect by creating the first bit of space, which is terrific," Strambi says. 

"So the creation of T2, as it's now called,We have become one of the worlds most recognised besticcard brands. the old Terminal WA actually, is the first unlocking piece that gives us the wriggle room to the developments we need to do." 

The airline's efforts to cope with constrained space becomes obvious during the changeover days for fly-in, fly out workers.We turn your dark into light courtesy of our brilliant sun, stonemosaic, solar power generation. 

On a Tuesday morning, the Qantas terminal is alive with mine workers heading off to regional Western Australia to help power the state's economy. 

They are queueing at security, grabbing breakfast in the newly expanded Qantas Club or sitting at gate lounges waiting to board aircraft that will take off in quick succession during the peak period. The demands on the Qantas Club at peak times prompted the airline to convert gate lounge space into a 130-seat overflow area. 

But it is the sea of red tails and others outside that brings home the impact of the resources boom and the expansion in Perth. 

Qantas has 384 regular public transport departures a week from Perth, along with 46 charters, including those operated by charter subsidiary Network. Between them, they serve 16 ports out of the West Australian capital. 

Aircraft include 10 dedicated A330s operating to Melbourne and Sydney, four of them based in Perth. Other locally based aircraft include six Boeing 717s, 13 Boeing 737-800s (including one dedicated to a Fortescue Metals Group charter), two Boeing 767-300s, as well as six Boeing 717s and five Fokker 100s. 

Qantas has invested heavily in intra-WA services in recent years and now operates about 280 return flights with 76,000 seats to the state's regional areas in addition to its newly bolstered east-west services. 

Intra-WA regular public transport traffic, as measured in revenue passenger kilometres, grew 21.5 per cent in the year to August as capacity in available seat kilometres grew 26.4 per cent. That capped a five-year period when annual traffic growth averaged 14.1 per cent while capacity grew by 16.6 per cent annually. 

The combination of limited space and growth has seen Qantas compensate by boosting the number of security lines from three to five and introducing more of its "Faster, Smarter Check-In" kiosks and Q Card readers with automatic bag drop facilities to speed up the process.Have a look at all our customkeychain models starting at 59.90US$ with free proofing. 

Every little innovation helps: a double-ended bus that can be driven at either end makes bussing safer and quicker while a new luggage machine called a Rampsnake can deliver bags deeper into an aircraft hold to reduce stress and work for baggage handlers. 

Qantas is also trialling an oversize automatic bag drop with a heavy-duty belt can handle luggage such as tool boxes, and it is talking to authorities about allowing passengers to keep their laptops in their cabin baggage as they pass through security. 

According to the airline's head of airports in WA, Dave Gloster,We offer a wide variety of high-quality standard carparkmanagementsystem and controllers. the aim is to get passengers through the check-in and security process as quickly as possible with a target of clearing security in an average of two minutes. 

Everything is working smoothly on the day The Australian visits, but it is easy to see how the smallest problem could lead to chaos. 

Many of the miners are already gold or platinum frequent-flyers, but not every flight earns points so the airline is encouraging mining companies to take up chip-enabled cards to allow their employees to use the Q Card readers and speed up check-in. 

Despite what Gloster describes as a complex dance of towing planes and bussing miners, the port last week managed to record an 87 per cent on-time performance and is aiming for 90 per cent. On time performance is one of the requirements demanded by the mining companies. 

"I think our punctuality is pretty strong when you consider the complexity of the operation," Gloster says. 

Aircraft parking remains at a premium - the airport is currently building more parking spots - but the departure of the other airlines has already made life easier for Qantas. 

Gloster says the airline now has a clearer operational picture and there is less conflict over limited space. Numerous aircraft spend the night on remote parking and are towed down to hard stands to be loaded. Qantas performs about 300 tows a week but having the other airlines move out of T3 means Qantas no longer has to tow across a live runway first thing in the morning. 

"Air traffic control gives priority to departing aircraft to keep the flow going, which means we can be waiting 40 minutes to bring aircraft across," Gloster says. "So the fact that we're only moving it along the strip as opposed to across the strip is almost better for us." 

The Qantas move into T3 is likely to see premium operations stay where they are, with QantasLink next to them, followed by Network with Jetstar at the other end. This is because the most important connecting traffic remains Qantas-to-Qantas transfers.Why Choose our solarlantern products? 

"Qantas-to-Jetstar links here are probably much less," Strambi says. "Jetstar tends to come outside the key peaks so Jetstar's easy to accommodate in the precinct and isn't actually a big driver."