Brisbane West Wellcamp airport builders Wagners have infrastructure advice for Tony Abbott Brisbane West Airport open for business The first passengers arrive on a QantasLink plane at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport near Toowoomba on Monday morning. PT1M57S http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/action/externalEmbeddedPlayer?id=d-3kihy 620 349 November 17, 2014 - 12:04PM A wealthy Queensland family who has built the first major airport in Australia in almost half a century has some simple advice for the prime minister. "Tony Abbott calls himself the infrastructure prime minister - well, he should start building some infrastructure," said John Wagner, the chairman of construction company Wagners, at the opening of its $200 million Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba on Monday. While Sydney waits for a second airport decades after it was first mooted, the Wagner family has constructed their airport in the space of just 19 months and 11 days. Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport which is in the final stages of development near Toowoomba. Mr Wagner said private enterprise needed to be brought in to build the proposed second airport in Sydney's west and government needed "to get out of the way and get on with the job." "They will do study after study after study and they won't get an outcome - it is about outcomes," he said. Mr Wagner said his family company was "absolutely" keen to play a role in building an airport at Badgerys Creek but had yet to have any serious talks with government or other interested parties. All aboard: The first flight has arrived at Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport. It is too early, and they will still be talking about this for years to come. When it's ready to go we will start those conversations," he said. Three generations of the Wagner family and hundreds of guests turned up at Brisbane Wellcamp West on Monday for the first flight by QantasLink from Sydney. The airport's terminal features four gates and its 2870-metre runway is long enough for an Airbus A380 superjumbo to land on. Up and away. QantasLink will operate 11 return flights a week between Toowoomba's new airport and Sydney using 74-seat Dash-8 Q400s, while Sydney-based carrier Regional Express will start services between Brisbane West Wellcamp and regional towns in Queensland in January. Virgin Australia and its subsidiary, Tigerair, have also been in talks with the Wagners about one day flying to the new airport. QantasLink chief executive officer John Gissing said he was confident that the regional airline would be able to expand services to the new airport in the longer term. Celebrating the first flight for Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport. "If things go well, there will be potential for greater frequency and an upgauging [to larger aircraft]," he said. Apart from more aircraft, the Wagners are keen to attract freight and tourists from Asia. Just watch this space. The Chinese are not actually looking for the Gold Coast or the bright lights. They want to get some fresh air, the country feel and less stress," Mr Wagner said. John Wagner believes private enterprise needs to be allowed to get on with building new infrastructure. Scepticism and ridicule The project director, Denis Wagner, said the airport had been built in the face of "scepticism, doubt and a fair bit of ridicule." Toowoomba Regional Council mayor Paul Antonio conceded that the airport would not have been built in record time had the state, local or federal governments been involved. The Wagners are one of Queensland's richest families, having built their wealth from the construction company which bears their name. Their company's primary work is on oil and gas projects in Australia and parts of Asia, but it has been involved in airport redevelopments such as that at Canberra Airport. Legg Mason research analyst Andrew Chambers said the Wagners had filled a gap in government spending. This Toowoomba airport is interesting because it appears as though the family has done it in place of government investment. They obviously believe that they are going to get a reasonable return from it," he said. The Wagners believe there will be demand from travellers because about 344,000 people fall within the curfew-free airport's catchment area. Brisbane Airport is more than two hours' drive away. Airports in Australia have a long lead time, and Sydney is a classic example. They are pretty tough to get up," Mr Chambers said, adding that the economics for a second airport in Sydney were marginal without government support. A lot of the problem with airport developments is that no one actively wants to pay for a major new investment because the returns are a long way off. Incentives needed Mr Chambers said airports and major roadways such as the East-West Link in Melbourne needed government incentives in order to become a reality. However, one of the quirks of infrastructure was that often "if you build it, they will come," citing the decisions by QantasLink and Regional Express to fly to the new Toowoomba airport. He doubts Brisbane West Wellcamp will have any material impact on passenger traffic at Brisbane or Gold Coast airports because of their distance from each other. However, the Lindsay Fox-owned Avalon Airport near Geelong in Victoria has shown that enticing airlines to fly to a regional airport, and making them stay, is not easy. The airport has been forced to diversify its business in the wake of Qantas closing its heavy aircraft maintenance base there early this year, as well as Tigerair pulling out several years ago and Jetstar reducing flights there. The Wagners had originally planned to build just a business park but as they began talking to international companies began to believe there would be a need for an airport in Toowoomba. They believe the fact that their airport was located further from Brisbane than Avalon was from Melbourne would work to their advantage. Matt OSullivan travelled to Toowoomba courtesy of QantasLink.