Brisbane Airport and QUT celebrate 10 year partnership
10/09/2009
Brisbane Airport Corporation Pty Limited (BAC) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) today celebrated 10 years of partnership and innovation.
The partnership has lead to more than 30 research projects over the past decade ranging from energy efficiency to improvement in security practices and natural environment management.
Minister for Tourism and Fair Trading Peter Lawlor, visited the airport today and congratulated the partners on their success, recognising their contribution to delivering world-class airport facilities for Queensland’s airport gateway to the world.
“With 45 percent of Australia’s international tourists flying through Brisbane each year, it is imperative that Queensland’s gateway airport has world-class facilities and operations, ensuring our visitors have the best possible welcome into the country,” he said.
BAC CEO and Managing Director Julieanne Alroe said the ongoing research outcomes would enable the identification of opportunities for improvement and will provide the tools to manage airport effectiveness in an innovative and efficient way.
“This research will develop innovative policy and practice to enhance future airport management and development across Australia and internationally,” she said.
“Airports play a central role in the sustainable growth of cities in the 21st Century. We invest in this partnership because it adds significant value to our strategy to design and develop a strong, sustainable airport that enhances the liveability of South East Queensland,” Ms Alroe said.
QUT Chair in Airport Innovation and leading airport researcher, Professor Ashantha Goonetilleke said: “This is an Australian, and possibly world-first partnership, in which the full resources of a multi-disciplined and leading university such as QUT are being applied to the real world challenges of an international airport,” he said.
Projects covered in the partnership include reducing aircraft bird strikes; improving water and energy efficiency, resource management, security and designing Airport Cities.
The partnership is now leading a consortium of aviation industry stakeholders in the ‘Airports of the Future’ project, which has also been backed by the Australian Research Council (ARC) with a $2.4 million linkage grant – one of the largest ARC linkage grants ever awarded – and another $1.9 million from industry partners.
Professor Goonetilleke said the major aim was to lessen the cost of mandated security – an area estimated to grow to $152 million by 2010 for the five major Australian airports.
“Airports are complex environments and the security experiences faced by air travellers have changed a lot in recent years. Airports of the Future is investigating this changing, complex environment and identifying ways to balance conflicting security, economic and passenger-driven pressures,” he said.
BAC is focused on delivering a world-class airport for Queensland, blending core aviation activities such as passenger and cargo movement with a full range of industrial and commercial activity, such as hospitality, entertainment, sport, retail, fresh produce, childcare, health services and recreation. More than 17,000 workers are now employed at Brisbane Airport with that figure expected to increase to more than 42,000 over the coming two decades.
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