January 22, 2013
The South Burnett Regional Council plans to spend $38,000 to install a new GPS approach system for aircraft using Kingaroy Airport.
The new technology will allow the ageing Non-Directional Beacon array to be decommissioned and removed, freeing up land in the airport precinct for future hangars to be built.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority recently told Council it intended to decommission the beacon in June 2016 because the technology was now old and little used.
The money to install the new GPS will come from $70,000 the Council set aside in this year’s Budget to take over operation of the airport’s weather forecasting station.
In February last year the Bureau of Meteorology flagged that it wanted to close weather forecasting services at 78 regional and remote aerodromes around Australia to save $7 million a year. Kingaroy Airport’s weather service was one of the 78 earmarked.
The South Burnett Regional Council wrote to the Bureau asking it to reconsider the closure, saying the lack of a Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) system would make the airport less safe, as well as less attractive to aviation operators.
In July, the Council set aside $70,000 in its Budget to take over the TAF service if required.
However, at today’s monthly general meeting, Councillors heard that the Bureau Of Meteorology had still not confirmed its intentions on the TAF system but CASA had recently told Council that it intended to decommission the Non-Directional Beacon (NDB).
Councillors were told a major advantage of removing the NDB was that would open up land where new hangars could be built.
At present, buildings are not allowed within a set perimeter of the NDB to avoid interference with the system’s operations.
The land freed up by removal of the towers could be leased, providing the Council with an additional revenue stream.
After a short debate, the motion to install a GPS approach system to replace the NDB system was passed unanimously.
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