DLA Piper has advised Perth Airport on its agreement with Qantas (ASX:QAN) to facilitate $5 billion of investment to construct an additional runway, as well as new domestic and international terminals, car parks, and a hotel.
Under the agreement all Qantas and Jetstar operations will consolidate to one new terminal once complete.
DLA Piper’s Perth-based International Co-Chair – Projects, Alyson Eather, says this is an important project for Western Australia and a significant milestone for Perth Airport and its investors.
“The agreement represents one of Australia’s most significant aviation infrastructure deals of recent times,” Eather says.
Western Australia’s resources sector relies heavily on its fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) workforce with thousands of workers passing through Perth Airport to travel to mine sites and back again. There are more than 60,000 FIFO workers across WA’s mines with about 10% estimated to typically fly in from different states.
Regional mining hubs Kalgoorlie, Port Hedland, Geraldton, and Kununurra are in the top 10 destinations with the most routes with Kalgoorlie in second place with eight behind Melbourne, which has nine routes.
Perth Airport’s Chief Commercial & Aviation Officer Kate Holsgrove says about 1.39 million passengers travelled through Perth Airport in January 2024 alone. In 2023, a record was set with more than 15 million passengers travelling through Perth’s terminals.
DLA Piper Partner Simon Uthmeyer, who is the firm’s leader of Competition & Regulation team in Australia, says the agreement between Perth Airport and Qantas demonstrates the current regulatory regime for aeronautical services at capital city airports works by delivering significant private investment in nationally significant airport infrastructure.
“In the development of the commercial framework underpinning the economics of this deal we drew upon our broad experience in infrastructure regulation and our unique airport regulatory expertise. At all times we were focused on ensuring the framework satisfied shareholder objectives,” Uthmeyer says.
“This deal is hopefully the restart of major capital programs at capital city airports which were deferred due to the pandemic.”
In February, commenting on last year’s passenger record, Perth Airport’s Holsgrove pointed out how vital to Western Australia’s prosperity for Perth Airport to grow and enhance capacity to support international and domestic tourism, as well as the resources sector.
Write to Adam Orlando at Mining.com.au
Images: Aviation
