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The latest draft of the Moorabbin Airport 2021 Master Plan has been approved by the federal infrastructure minister.
Catherine King approved the master plan this week, saying that there had been concerns raised about it.
“I acknowledge that there have been stakeholder concerns with the master planning process relating to Moorabbin Airport, particularly around community engagement and aviation planning processes,” she said.
“However, the plan resolves a number of stakeholder concerns raised with the previous draft and paves a strong path for growth.”
Moorabbin Airport is in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs, 21kmsouth of the CBD, and is a base for flight training and other key aviation services.
It is 28km from Port Melbourne and has connections to the Dingley Bypass, the Dandenong Bypass, the Monash Freeway, the Nepean Highway and the Mordialloc Freeway.
Moorabbin Airport claims to be the second busiest airport in Australia and cover more than 294ha of land. It is host to more than 50 aviation organisations onsite.
Flight training will be a key component of the new masterplan for development with student numbers expected to increase from 1350 to 1800 by 2041.
Land use controls for the core aviation precinct will also be tightened to help protect it as part of the plan.
First drafted in 2021, the masterplan sets out a vision for the airport for the next 20 years.
It includes strategy around future land use, new development, noise impacts and environmental management.
The plan also confirms that the western apron’s airside fence will not be relocated and there will be an effort to target net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
It also predicts strong employment growth with direct and indirect jobs forecasted to grow from 16,500 to 23,100 by 2029.
Moorabbin Airport chief executive Paul Ferguson welcomed the decision.
“Moorabbin Airport’s focus always was, and always will be, safe aviation – our approach for future land use is framed around growth, safe airspace, flight training and education as well as aviation infrastructure,” Ferguson said.
“Areas that are for non-aviation will greatly help to upgrade legacy infrastructure to benefit aviation and non-aviation customers.”
Ferguson also said that the airport had increased the number of aviation students by 40 per cent and had made efforts to modernise 46 per cent of the aviation facilities’ floorspace.
“In addition to this, we have generated local economic activity and employment within the City of Kingston – generating $870 million of economic benefit per year,” he said.
“With our plan, this is forecast to increase to $1.2 billion over the next eight years alone.
“With $250 million invested in aviation, non-aviation and sustainable projects since 2015, we look forward to investing a further $285 million during the next eight years.”
The airport has previously collaborated with Goodman to develop facilities at the sit and in fact Goodman is currently developing a project on Boundary Road.
Mass Timber Units will be the first timber warehouse developed by the company, and will be targeting a 5 Green Star rating target and a carbon emissions reduction of 24 per cent.
Electric vehicle charging stations, solar panels and green energy are part of the project plans.
Meanwhile, the federal government is inviting community feedback on an Aviation White Paper to be released in the first half of 2024 on a range of aviation issues including airport planning.
A Green Paper will be released shortly.
The federal minister recently refused to approve the masterplan for Archerfield Airport in Brisbane, exercising her powers under legislation to ask Archerfield Airport Corporation to submit a revised masterplan within six months.
