Shaping the Future of Australian Airports: Innovation, Sustainability, and Connectivity

Transcript

Simon Hickey:We're going now for lunch.

Merren McArthur:I have to say we're very flattered that the CAPA team have saved the very best till last. We've got a great team of airport executives here today with a broad range of experience across the full spectrum of airports. So I'll just get them to quickly introduce themselves rather than me go down the line. So if you can just quickly introduce yourselves, please, just to those people who don't know you in the audience.

Simon Westaway:Yeah, no stress. Hi, Simon Westaway. I'm the Chief Executive of the Australian Airports Association.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:I'm Gert-Jan de Graaff. I'm the CEO of Brisbane Airport.

Simon Hickey:Simon Hickey, CEO of Western Sydney International Airport.

Garry Porter:Garry Porter, Chief Operating Officer for Cairns and Mackay Airports.

Jim Parashos:And I'm Jim Parashos, Chief of Aviation at Melbourne Airport.

Merren McArthur:Thanks everyone. So we're going to be discussing some very topical subjects today, some that have been touched on throughout the conference, but from a particular airport perspective. So that's innovation, sustainability, and connectivity. So we'll kick off with innovation. In the past decade or so, there's been huge leaps forward in innovation at airports to improve the passenger journey. And so I'm interested in the panel's view on what the future holds in terms of innovation. And Simon Westaway, you, you know, represent a broad range of airports. I assume that you probably have a really good vision of what's going on out there and what the plans are. So can you kick off the discussion and then we'll hand over to the rest of the panel?

Simon Westaway:Yeah, thanks, Merren. Appreciate that. Yes, we represent In an advocacy policy sense, pretty much every airport around the country that has some level of passenger movement, be it through the big mining FIFO piece, or through Pilbara, through Northern and obviously Central Australia. Obviously, a number of my members are on the panel here today. All the major airports are a member of us. We just have a lot of corporate members that provide services into airports around the country. And all the country and regional airports the council owned, pretty much they're all in our tent, which is fantastic. We've got a lot to do on innovation. I just wanted to say, I sometimes wear coloured jackets, thought I'd add a bit of colour for this afternoon, but I just wanted to sort of make one— there's been a couple of points made about airport charges over the last couple of days, and happy— it's an old crusty debate, and I know Collingwood are playing the Lions on the weekend, and that's probably going to be the AFL Grand Final coming later this year if you follow it closely, and there's a fair bit of contestability between those two. But I just think it's important, just at the end of the day, charges represent a very small and a flat part of a customer airfare. We've got plenty of data, and I'm not going to go through the whole thing, but the last 4 PC reviews again show that the light-touch regime that sits over these pricing arrangements, we continue to have that approach. So I just think it's just important that we have a little level of balance around that, whatever your footy team at you.

Simon Hickey:Thank you.

Simon Westaway:That you follow. But in terms of innovation, yeah, look, there's heaps of innovation going on. And these earnest gentlemen here can obviously talk a little bit about what's going on at their specific airports. But I think there's probably 2 or 3 really interesting points to go through. I think firstly, the customer centricity around airports today, be it from the big end of town and our emerging airports, particularly what Cairns are doing and what they're trying to do with the integrated terminal, it's really quite changing stuff. And I think even Post-COVID, we've seen some really good innovation by airports to meet that customer head-on. It's, you know, without getting into the weeds too much, just the work that they're doing and the offering around valet parking. There are various segments of valet parking now at many of our airports around the country. It's all been customer-driven. Airports have sought to meet a need, and that's an important— that's the important point. And also the quality ratings that, that come through for the various measurements we have. There's a lot of construction going on at airports. There's $26 billion in infrastructure spend at the moment across the board— new terminals, future terminals, new runways, and the like. So there's a lot of work that's been done there. And then I guess in that we talked a lot about sustainability last couple of days, there's a lot of work on that sustainable practices side that airports are trying to really do what they can to be carbon neutral and their own net zero in their own right, and then obviously then to work with their partners.

Merren McArthur:Yeah, thanks, Simon. That's great.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:And, um, just anyone else on the panel want to pitch in on innovation that I think it's important to point out, Merren, and by the way, we had 3 prep meetings and we promised each other we would go off track anyway, so that's already happening.

Simon Westaway:Yeah.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:So, I think it's important to point out that there's quite a lot of innovation happening at airports, and that's not all AI-related, and that's sort of the flavour of the day. But over the last few years, especially when it comes to things like our asset management activities, the way we service passengers and use our CCTV systems to actually manage the building, manage the flows, and be proactive in doing that. There's a lot of progress there, and I know Simon wants to talk a little bit about those novelties in his new development. But every now and then, we're also forgetting that we've got airside. And actually, I had a few discussions today about innovations on, let's say, the core of our operation. That's whatever happens at the airfield. And we're more or less doing the same job today that we did in the 1980s.

Simon Hickey:Yeah.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:It's more or less the same process. And therefore, I'm really encouraged that today I had discussions about self-docking of aerobridges. We had a conversation about Parameter security and how you could use drones to do that and have AI applications to use less labour and provide a more secure environment. Conversations about robot mowers. There's a lot of mowing going on at airports. That's not necessary. You can do that automated as well. So there's a lot happening that is not as sexy maybe as AI, but will definitely change the way we're doing our business and we're managing our airports.

Simon Hickey:I think if I could just add, we've been lucky because we've, in a way, we've got a greenfield airport, and obviously of the size and scale that hasn't been built in Australia for over 50 years. So when you think about the innovations that are occurring, and often with technology advancements as well, there's, there's, there's so many that you can go through. As we, as we work to ensure that the passenger just has an intuitive wayfinding through the airport, then that— and as we shrink the building, that means bringing natural light in and always walking, really just walk towards where you can see that light coming from and engage people in that way. That also has a calming effect on people. It's a very, you know, stressful time when you're work— when you're getting through the airport. And so more natural light helps to reduce that. So that's one. physical way that we're doing it. But it also means that you can have common user technology throughout. So that means that you can choose any kiosk or any bag drop, whether you're going to New York or Melbourne. And that means that, that actually passengers in the future and from Western Sydney Airport really can choose anywhere that eliminates queues.

Merren McArthur:Mm-hm.

Simon Hickey:So because we've got international and domestic all under one umbrella, it means that you're eliminating queues. Within the airport, to get productivity and efficiency, we've got swing gates throughout. So that means that we can swing, depending on the peaks and the troughs, we can swing between international and domestic. From a customer point of view, from a passenger point of view, then that makes no difference. They'll just make their way to the gate. But from our point of view, we're using much— we're getting much more out of much less. And I think that's really important. We have a CAT 3B. We'll be the second airport in Australia to have a CAT 3B. Uh, which just means that you can land and take off in any weather conditions. Um, and, uh, and then from the gate, you can be, um, the, the pilot will actually be talking to the computers in order to, uh, know where to park the aircraft up. Autonomous, um, uh, aerobridges. Um, so all of those things, um, the fixed-link bridges, which allows great space and the ability to service the aircraft from in front of the aircraft, which in—

Gert-Jan de Graaff:Yeah.

Simon Hickey:improves safety at airports, which is a big consideration for airports. So really, we've got a DAS, which is a digital aerodrome. So we won't have a tower. We'll be using a mast with cameras on it, or air service will be using a mast with cameras on it in order to manage the airspace across the airport. They'll be in a data centre, which is just down in Kempsey next door to us. So using technology and design to drive innovation, I think, is critical as we, as we all invest in airports going forward. So airports are changing.

Merren McArthur:Yeah, it's great. That's great and really exciting.

Garry Porter:And we're about to, you know, finish our $50 million renovation in our international terminal later this year. We did the domestic terminal in 2020. We'll have the bones by the end of this year for us to look at where do we want to go as an airport, what's our identity, what innovation's out there, what can we take forward. You know, being in Northern Australia, mid-sized airport, you know, low volume, we've got to look at how we can do things smarter, harder, faster, more efficient to attract airlines, but also look after the airlines we've already got. We've got 30% of our passengers every day going through our international terminal over to the domestic, and then back from the domestic internationally northbound. And how do we improve that process for them? You know, you talked about wayfinding, you talked about intuitive, but is there some sort of product, is there some sort of innovation? You know, can we— we've got 3,000 square metres in our international terminal. Can we look at an integration-type arrangement just like Western Sydney? So I think we're really at a really good point where we've got the bones And we've got the ability now to take ourselves forward and actually test some of the new technology, test some of the new thinking, and actually deliver a really good customer-centric product.

Jim Parashos:And look, from a Melbourne Airport perspective, and I've been reflecting on the discussions the last few days, particularly with our airline partners' comments that Dave and Race and Marcus made, and a lot of it was around airport charges, the tsunami For want of a better word, of capital expansion. Most airports in Australia now are hitting sort of 50 years of age or thereabouts, so we're having to invest. So I think the focus from a Melbourne Airport perspective, and I think it's on all of us, is to really focus on productivity of our facilities, because the expansions that we're talking about, whilst they might be agreed to now, are still 7, 8, 9 years away from being built.

Simon Hickey:Yeah.

Merren McArthur:Mm-hmm.

Jim Parashos:Delivery. So I think that the key is to really work together on productivity. And I think one of the biggest choke points for all of us is international arrivals. Based on geography, flight times, and average sector length, and time zones, we all have those peaks at certain times of the day. And I just don't think it's good enough for us, for Australians that are taxpayers, to come back to that congestion between 6 and 10 in the morning every single day, and I don't think it's the best welcome for our international visitors. And I think finally, and I was only reflecting on it earlier, the key point for me is last year Melbourne Airport generated $250 million from airport charges from its airline customers to provide infrastructure. Our 6 million departures contributed $460 million to the PMC. which is double our revenues to provide the bricks and mortar for our customer and airline passengers. So I think as a collective, and I think this is where these forums are great, to really work together to prioritise as an industry what the top 1, 2, 3 things are that we're going to do over the next 12 months and do them well.

Merren McArthur:Yeah, so it has to be all stakeholders involved, I hear you saying. Yeah, okay, that's, that's fantastic. It's— I think it's great to hear the passenger centricity of our airports. You know, I think a couple of decades ago, um, the passengers would have been the customers of the airlines, but it's— um, the airports have really embraced, um, the role that they play in making the passenger journey, um, seamless and less stressful for all of us. Um, but I think, uh, just picking up on what you were saying, Jim, that, you know, maybe government needs to also step up and, and help with some of the passenger journey because it's not all, it's not all in the airport's control. Um, just touch, Garry, I'd just like to draw you out a little bit more on the AI and automation piece. Can you just—

Garry Porter:Yeah, yeah, sure. So, you know, as a small airport, um, you know, in a regional place, technology, um, and expenditure on technology is Um, probably hasn't been there from our perspective. And this year we've taken a real focus to look at AI. Um, we've actually embedded in, uh, in our corporate, um, strategy this year around some business improvements around AI and how we can deliver, um, quicker, more timely, uh, uh, outcomes. And, you know, a good example is every time an airline wants to do a marketing campaign or a Friday sale or a frenzy, I've got a marketing team that are trying to lean into their their, uh, their sale processes versus we could use some AI, dump it down. We've already got templates they can produce and pump out. And that gets my team to help coordinate beautiful events like this, um, which is going to add more value to the region, um, as well as coordinating with the airlines. So, um, we've got a real focus on not only just using AI, um, but all technology, um, and how we can look at using it and applying it to look at the entire airport, and that's from the time they enter the roadway until they actually pick up their bag on the way home. And it's about where are those choke points and how do we improve the use of the assets that we have to, one, deliver the best customer outcome, but two, it's actually aligning with not only the airline expectation, but it's got to align with the government, you know, white paper, 56 initiatives. And I think that's where Jim was coming back to is It's great that the government's got these, you know, the white paper out there, but are they all aligned? And, you know, we can bring in technology, we can bring in customer-centric stuff, but if we're jumping leaps and bounds in front of the government, then we're all going to— we're set up for failure. So, yes, as an airport, we can embrace technology. Yes, we can embrace AI, but it's a journey that we've all got to take together.

Simon Hickey:I think it's a good point. If I can add to that, it's, um, so we're biometrically enabled throughout the airport, which means that the idea is that you will not need to take out a piece of paper to make your way through the entire airport. It will be, you know, facial recognition will be throughout, and that will work for all of the processing that the airport needs to do of any passenger Um, throughout the airport. Um, where it obviously does fall down is that we— the border force needs to come along and align with that as well. It is in fact the future. We already see it in many airports around the world. Um, and we need to work with our, um, colleagues in the agencies to ensure that, uh, we all are aligned so that that customer proposition actually is world-class, um, and that we're delivering that. for passengers as they go through the airport.

Simon Westaway:And Simon makes a good point there. So, look, we actually are working really well with Border Force. I mean, it is easy, I guess, for agencies and airports and airlines to all stand off from each other, and I don't really think those dark blue suits are really that appealing, but nonetheless, that's the look. But I think what's important is that there's a session this afternoon with the National Passenger Facilitation Committee and other discussion about— we are really trying to work well with Border Force as best we can. I think we're all on the same page here, But we do really have to have this vision, um, you know, passport-free, seamless travel, uh, and we've got to push— I think it's beholden on all of us to really push the government as hard as we can, the regulators as hard as we can, um, to the point that we can actually hit some targets and, and get to where we need to get to. And for no other reason, the government's own data shows the significant passenger flows that's coming through. A lot of it's driven by outbound Aussie travel, but there's also these inbound markets are coming back.

Simon Hickey:Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Simon Westaway:Reasonably well. India, I was in a briefing last week on India, and it's quite exciting. Obviously, it's a massive country with a huge middle class and all the other metrics that come with it for those that obviously study this stuff. But I think that it's opportunities, but we've got to get it right, particularly for us as taxpayers.

Merren McArthur:Yeah.

Simon Westaway:Anything else?

Merren McArthur:Yeah. And so just moving on now to sustainability, and Simon Hickey, it's not very often you get a chance to build an airport from scratch. And as you said, You've taken advantage of that opportunity by putting into the planning all of your passenger-centric innovations. So what about sustainability? I know that's a big pillar, both in the planning and also the ongoing operations.

Simon Hickey:Yeah, so actually we've heard a lot about SAF over the last couple of days, and I think SAF is an important part of the puzzle. But actually we can We can actually conquer sustainability much more easily on the ground, right? Every airport working together with airline partners and across the airport can actually be sustainable. And that is really what our first point of entry into sustainability should be. Let's be sustainable on the ground. And there's some requirements that that means. So from a building perspective, embedded carbon, you know, we've done— we brought 6 million tonnes of sandstone from the tunnelling projects in Australia, that's under our pavements. So that was great recycling. 98% of our water is recycled, has been recycled on the site. Across, we've used where we could use different materials to ensure that they're more green across our pavements, we've done that. And we've looked at sustainability throughout in terms of the build component. So our landside, our airside, and our bulk earthworks have all had the highest award of sustainability across the airport precinct. So that's in terms of embedded carbon and managing that from day dot. But there's also the idea of sustainability by design. And so sustainability by design is where can I reduce any contribution in terms of Where can I improve sustainability from that? So we've got fast taxiways, which are 45-degree taxiways, so you don't need to slow completely. So our taxiing time on average will be 5 minutes to the gate. And at Sydney Airport, that is approximately 20 minutes to the gate.

Garry Porter:Yeah.

Simon Hickey:So that's reducing carbon on the ground. It's reducing noise on the ground. We can have single-engine taxiing because it is flat. It's a flat area, so you can go to single-engine taxiing. We'll hold— we'll work with air services to hold aircraft at the gate if there's any congestion, again, so you're not going out. We put charging, as is around, particularly in European airports, we put charging all across the airside gates, uh, so that our airside equipment will be electrified, um, to the largest extent possible. And so that is actually a requirement of the airport that we actually lean into sustainability and do that. Uh, at the airport. Um, the terminal itself is sustainable by design. So we've used, um, uh, systems to reduce the heat effect and, and the cooling effect, um, including on our massive windows that we've got. Uh, we've used a, a, a dot system that is actually better than a louvre system, uh, to reduce the, um, the heat effect. Uh, we've got, uh, 6,000 solar panels.

Merren McArthur:Wow.

Simon Hickey:On the roof. Every building, we've got over 30 structures across the airport, they've all got solar panels. Every structure's got a solar panel on it. And so we're reducing our energy consumption that way. We've actually knocked off gas at the airport. We will use heat pumps. And so we're actually going fully electric. We'll do that for our airside busing as well, our landside busing as well, so that— Really what we're doing is trying to reduce the carbon effect. We're trying to ensure that we capture our water and reuse it appropriately. We try and reduce noise on the ground so that we're trying to lean in to become one of the most sustainable airports in the world. What we want to do is work with airline partners so that we actually maintain that. It's really, it's a collaboration between us and the airlines so that you don't bring— so that there aren't those dirty diesels that are chugging around. And we can, by pooling equipment, we can ensure that the price is right at the same time.

Merren McArthur:Yeah.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:Obviously, Simon has a huge advantage, a massive advantage, and that's he's got a very rich shareholder. So that helps. And it's obviously very beneficial to start from scratch when you develop an airport. Unfortunately, most of us don't have that luxury, so therefore I'm very proud to say, and I can say this I think on behalf of all the airports in Australia, that we've come a long way in the last decade in terms of thinking about what a sustainable airport operation looks like.

Simon Westaway:Mm-hmm.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:Most of us do have solar panels on their terminals or on the buildings at the airport. Most of us are investing in electrification of equipment. For example, at Brisbane Airport, Our whole fleet is electrified, so that's what we've done. We've got 10 megawatts of solar power as well, but it doesn't end there. So this is just the beginning of the journey to become a more sustainable airport. We've currently— we are net zero for our Scope 1 and 2 emissions as the first airport, Garry, in Australia. We had a bit of a joke about that this morning. And that's a good step forward, but as Simon already indicates, The most important challenge is Scope 3 emissions. That's not only from aviation, that's also from all the other companies, all those other businesses that are active on airport. We've got currently more than 650 businesses that have their base. A lot of that are trucking goods in and out and the likes. That's all part of our Scope 3 emissions as well. So we will continue to focus on what we can do better, what we can do to support the whole airport community to become more sustainable. And I do believe, although SEV is a very, very complicated thing to introduce and to create a supply chain for in Australia, I don't think as airports we can shy away from our responsibility to facilitate those discussions, to be part of it, and to try to stimulate the government to create those policy settings to make a SAF supply chain, local supply chain possible. Because ultimately for us as airports, the most important thing is that the SAF actually goes into planes on our airports, because otherwise it doesn't benefit our local efforts to become net zero for Scope 3. I know there are a lot of airports talking about book and claim. That means they can buy SAF and offset it here in Australia. That doesn't benefit us locally. So therefore, we make a plea for policy settings that provide certainty to the customers of SAF. That's the airlines. They want to pay a reasonable price for that SAF that's being produced locally. We plea for good regulatory settings for the farmers and other people that provide feedstock. Because they need to know that there's a market for their goods as well, and get a reasonable return on their investments. And ultimately, there need to be policy settings for the people that are making the big, big investments in production facilities, because they need to know that they have supply and demand for the stuff they're producing. That's what we're pushing really hard for, and our government needs to take the responsibility to get that going.

Garry Porter:We take our responsibility and the stewardship of Sustainability. You've got the Great Barrier Reef and you've got the Daintree on your doorstep. So from an airport perspective, you know, we can all do Scope 1, Scope 2, but it's more about— it's more than that. It's actually, as Gert-Jan said, it's about getting the community involved. It's about creating pathways and futures for others. And, you know, we have the traditional landowners nurturing some of our land in and around our airport. Um, we do some programs with the, with the junior elders to come through and look at sustainability and look at their land. We've food— we've done a food web or mapped the food sources for all the animals on our airport to look at what sort of climate change actually would impact the food web and actually the species and the animals that are in our airport environment. So it's not just about looking at what's in your own patch, but also taking on a greater responsibility about not only your patch, but more importantly, the community.

Merren McArthur:Yeah. And, um, Gert-Jan, I know you're a very modest gentleman. He's actually on the council, on the Jet Zero Council, and so he actually— I have great hope in Australia's future with sustainable fuel with Gert on board. So on that note, let's move on to connectivity. So Australia is dependent on aviation to connect us to the rest of the world, and each of you airports and all of your airports that you represent, Simon, are, you know, gateways to some of the iconic destinations in Australia. However, the fact of the matter is that each of those destinations are competing with each other and actually with the rest of the world for tourism and tourist travel. So the airports have an important role to actually attract tourism to their destinations and to Australia, and I'm just interested in some of the innovative ideas or what the current practice is for for actually attracting airlines to your gateway destinations? So, Jim, we might start with you.

Jim Parashos:Yeah, so I think there's 2 parts from a— I suppose from a Melbourne Airport perspective and a, um, uh, my own sort of personal perspective. I think quite often, uh, we naturally look at aviation access from a tourism lens, and I think I'll let my colleagues talk about aviation in the tourism sense, but I think what gets lost for me a little bit. We think of regional and community connections as 34-seat turboprops flying to remote places, but I spent 10 years in Darwin and had kids that grew up there, and with a drop of the hat, I'd pick up the phone and I'd have my FIFO mother come up and look after the kids. And I think we forget that probably 80% of our passengers domestically are probably visiting friends and relatives, doing business.

Simon Hickey:Yeah.

Jim Parashos:Or travelling somewhere for health reasons. So I think the tourism perspective is great from an economic point of view, but I think we, we lose a little bit the, the fact that they're actually essential services all across the board, whether you're a major capital or otherwise.

Garry Porter:Mm-hmm.

Jim Parashos:And, and I think if you looked at some of the regional centres and said to people that live up there that are either from Melbourne or Sydney or Adelaide originally, uh, your fares are going to go up 3 times and you're going to be down to 2 flights a week, they'd probably move back to where they're they're from because of that being disconnected. So I think it's really important that we look at that aviation connectivity from— as a social service that's provided, not just an economic tourism, uh, benefit. The second component, and it comes into international, I think from a Melbourne perspective where, uh, we were the first to get over 100%, uh, international connectivity. And going back to my domestic point, It wasn't just the major events and it wasn't Taylor Swift or anything that, that drove, uh, that connectivity. It was really family connections on one hand, and then people, uh, I suppose, letting off steam after being locked up and wanting to head on holidays, or, uh, Australians that had families overseas, uh, traveling to see family after the lockdown. So, uh, so I think, I think we do it— do ourselves a disservice as an industry when it's only about tourism. It's a critical part. It's one that we can stimulate, but I think we shouldn't lose sight of the importance that it plays for our regions and also connecting new Australians and those of us that have been around for a little bit longer.

Simon Westaway:Yeah. So I think we're seeing it now. So we did the social experiment, right? We locked up big time, probably New Zealand maybe slightly more, um, and we all got our views about it, but we were locked up for a long time and then hey presto, we're all open for business again. And so The social experiment proved a few things. It proved that the Chinese visitors weren't— were coming around 1.5, almost 1.6 million annualised visit trips a year. They suddenly didn't come back that way, right? It's a bit like how the Japanese market was huge in the '80s, early '90s, and then— And my old members have been buying property up this way from down south. But so it was like, you know, it was White Shoe Brigade and all that sort of stuff. But the reality was some of these markets pop and they move back and Up and down. And you're right, it is probably looked too much through a tourism lens. I worked at Tourism Australia for a number of years running their strategy, and obviously the tourism stuff's very evocative. Everyone's got a view. We're a beautiful country, and as we all know, we travel the world and come back here. This is by far one of the best countries to, to be here and grow, bring your kids up and so forth. Um, also grow them as well. But, um, I guess my point is we do need to think a lot about that more, and collectively as a sector, is what we really want. There's a productivity commission going to come up, which will have a good look at the regional aviation scene, and I think it's absolutely warranted. Um, you know, the demise of Rex as an entity, and it's on life support through us, the taxpayer, at the moment, and that'll be whatever it ultimately is. But again, it's a further proof point of it's a different type of operation. But, you know, regional routes or thin domestic routes are really, really key that we've got to continue to keep these things going.

Simon Hickey:Mm-hmm.

Simon Westaway:sustainable so that we can grow that overall pie? Because I think the demand's there for people who want to travel.

Merren McArthur:Yeah, yeah.

Simon Hickey:I think if I could add to that, the economic benefit that that connectivity brings to the local economy is huge. So at Western Sydney Airport, right next door to us, the New South Wales government is building the 3rd city of Sydney if you go east to west. So you've got CBD, Parramatta, and the 3rd city of Sydney, which is Bradfield. And that's being put there as a result of the airport and the connectivity that can be provided. So that is designed around future jobs, defence industries, advanced manufacturing, space research, agribusiness. And those future jobs are going to provide an economic outcome for people in Western Sydney, not just related to the airport, but it's there because the Yes. And the ability to develop those jobs. And that means that you're actually creating jobs that are closer to home. It improves work-life balance. It means that you get better diversity in the workforce. You know, people of Western Sydney actually, they're known fondly as the squinters because they squint looking at the sun going to work in the morning and squint looking at the sun coming home. And we need to change that dynamic. It's not, it's not appropriate. Uh, anymore. And that the airport will help to do that, let alone the, you know, we've got a 200-hectare business park that we'll develop. Uh, we'll get all of the aviation jobs. There's tens of thousands of jobs, uh, that are going to be created around the airport with the cargo precinct. Overlooking us, we've got the, um, Amazon, uh, largest sortation centre in, uh, in the southern hemisphere. We've got, uh, Australia Post just there. So we're creating Opportunity, economic outcomes. And aviation is growing in Asia-Pacific. It's not shrinking and it's not stable. So you've got Changi Airport is adding 50 million annual passengers, which is really an enormous increase. We've seen the Middle East increasing. So the UAE is building new airports. You've got obviously Qatar has done so and Saudi is doing so. We've seen the big developments that's occurring in Istanbul. We've got a new airport being developed in the Philippines. We've got, you know, new airports being developed and expansions in Vietnam. There is expansion in India. I could just keep on going. The— we— our neighbourhood is increasing in aviation, and that's vital that we tap into that and facilitate that to and from Australia.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:And as you can hear, Merren, we're all very excited about the diversity of the business, and it's Exactly as all these gentlemen were saying, VFR mentioned by Jim, tourism by Simon, the economic engine that airports are by the other Simon. Probably in addition to that, I'd like to mention freight and the importance of freight, especially for regional destinations. Brisbane Airport currently connects 33 international destinations with 62 domestic destinations. Most of those 62 domestic destinations are fairly small, and a lot of those destinations are flown because of freight reasons and because of fly-in fly-out operations. So there's a huge benefit in aviation far beyond that tourism sexy part that everyone sees. We're bringing the spare parts, the pharmaceuticals, the mail, the e-commerce, all those packages from our airports and distributing them to those 62 airports in the country.

Simon Hickey:Yeah.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:And the other large airports are doing exactly the same. And that's where the real benefit of aviation sits. We've got 11 destinations from Brisbane Airport with only one connection, and that's to Brisbane. Those people don't have anywhere else to go than to Brisbane, so they're automatically part of our community, of who we are. Um, and that's top of mind when we make decisions about, um, how we work with airlines to further expand frequencies, destinations, opportunities.

Merren McArthur:Fantastic. Fantastic.

Garry Porter:The gentlemen have talked about the opportunities. You know, regional airports like ours have a really big challenge in that, you know, there is domestic capacity constraint right now. Pre-COVID, we used to have 30% of all international traffic— well, 30% of our domestic passengers were international visitors coming to our region. We're at about 19% right now. It's about 300,000 passenger difference in international visitation to our region compared to where it was pre-COVID. That's okay. We can go and chase some international tails and we can get them in here, and that's great. But then once again, they'll want to connect onto a domestic connectivity and alike. So it's a challenge for us in that We can go chasing new international tails, get them here, but then once again, how do we disperse them? Or vice versa, we get them into the southern gateways and then try to bring them back up. The other piece you mentioned, Gert-Jan, is freight. You know, we've got over $600 million worth of export that comes out of our region every year, and nearly 2/3 of it's exported down to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne because of the air connectivity up here. And so as a region, It's a challenge, but it's also an opportunity.

Merren McArthur:Mm.

Garry Porter:You know, to look at how do we break the mould to actually help support. And we said it earlier, not only are we competing against the other 8 Australian airports, we're actually competing on a global scale. So when we're sitting around a table and saying, hey, would you like to come and fly to Cairns? They're like, oh yeah, what's in Cairns? And then you talk about the Great Barrier Reef, and you talk about the Daintree, and you talk about the freight and the opportunity, and we've got a really good aviation skills We've got a skills centre here training kids up for the future for MRO facilities. You know, we've got a really, really good story, but you're competing on a global scale. And to actually add to the challenge right now is domestic connectivity doesn't allow you to also demonstrate the volume you could carry. So yes, there's really good opportunity, but there is also a major challenge for regional international airports.

Merren McArthur:Yeah.

Garry Porter:But one we're up for.

Merren McArthur:Yeah, I agree. We're just a bit over time. I do see there's a question over there on the Slido, curious about risks such as cybercrime, drone disruption, and how you evaluate those and address them. Very quick response. Who's going to give me a nice succinct response to that?

Simon Hickey:Jim.

Jim Parashos:Yeah, I'll take cyber because I think Absolutely. If it's not on everyone— the top of list for everyone outside of day-to-day safety and security in the airport operation, you're living under a rock. So I think it is by far one of the top things that we look at every single day. And we've got technology risk specialists and others that are keeping an eye on it. And I think given the level of activity that we do, With customers, other than having them physically in our terminals, a lot of the transactions that take place online and otherwise, it's a— and the amount of personal information that's out there, it's top of mind, most definitely.

Merren McArthur:And it's not just personal data, but it's actually critical infrastructure.

Jim Parashos:Absolutely.

Merren McArthur:So you've got both, right, in terms of the potential to disrupt the whole country. No more questions? Can I ask any more questions? Yeah, yeah, go. Yeah? Oh, are there any questions from the floor? I can't really see. All right, I was going to ask each of them one more question. Yeah, can I go? Okay, so there's been a lot of discussion, and in most of the discussions there's been comments and helpful advice to the government about what the government can do to help help us. So I'm just going to now challenge each of you very quickly, nice and succinct. If you were Prime Minister for one day, what would be your decision that would most impact for the good aviation in Australia?

Simon Westaway:Well, my political one, I'd completely redo the Federation.

Merren McArthur:Okay, that's succinct. All right.

Simon Westaway:But no, in all honesty, I do think we just got to get a seamless, safe, secure efficient border for people, goods, freight, immigration, biosecurity, the whole works. We've got to be quite serious about it. We're an island off the rest of the world. We're a sophisticated country. A lot of Aussie technology overseas is doing that.

Simon Hickey:Cool.

Merren McArthur:Tick, tick, tick.

Simon Hickey:Done.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:I would create a Ministry for Aviation. I find it very confusing in Australia that we've got a department who is the regulator looking after infrastructure, You've got Home Affairs with a very important influence and impact on what we do every day. You've got a Ministry of Environment who don't talk to the other 2. We've got PCs and ACCCs that find something as well.

Simon Hickey:They claim they don't compete.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:Based on the misconception that we don't compete, which is absolutely bull. So there is definitely a need for Ministry for Aviation to make sure that we actually develop this industry further, make it Stronger because this country depends on it domestically and internationally.

Merren McArthur:Okay, tick, tick, tick. Simon, very quick.

Simon Hickey:So I think the Prime Minister's doing a great job.

Merren McArthur:Okay, well done, Gert-Jan.

Simon Hickey:I would say I would embrace technology to drive efficiency and productivity through the experience around the airport, whether that be for freight, Okay, great.

Garry Porter:I agree with Gert-Jan. Um, you know, as I mentioned before, we've got the white paper, 56 initiatives, 6 different departments. How do we, uh, make sure that everyone's aligned and delivers an outcome for the industry of the future?

Merren McArthur:Great. And Jim?

Jim Parashos:Focus on, uh, the, the customer and making journeys seamless. And I certainly wouldn't have any of these guys in my cabin if I was Prime Minister.

Merren McArthur:All right, thank you very much, everyone. on the panel, and thank you to the audience.

Gert-Jan de Graaff:Thanks, Merren.

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