Brisbane Airport Corporation confirms plan to build second runway after Courier-Mail #bnelateagain campaign How The Courier-Mail has covered the #bnelateagain campaign Source: CourierMail BRISBANE Airport chiefs will today announce they will build a new parallel runway within the decade to address the city's chronic flight congestion. The move follows The Courier-Mail's #bnelateagain campaign, launched seven months ago to highlight the urgent need for the additional landing strip. See who's tweeting #bnelateagain right now Airport assurance on second runway Cross-runway enlisted to ease delays Funding model for second runway slammed It is understood the Brisbane Airport Corporation Board has finally decided to fund the $1.3 billion cost of the project itself after failing to break the deadlock with airlines over contributing. The move should ensure that the new parallel runway is completed by the 2020 target set by BAC. The additional 3.3km strip is essential to solving the frustrating holdups that have earned Brisbane the unenviable record of being the worst-performing of Australia's major hubs for on-time arrivals. The #bnelateagain social media and print campaign drew a massive response from passengers fed up with persistently being forced to circle the airport for long periods waiting to land and concerned about the risk to the state's economy. Last year, 26,992 flights in and out of Brisbane were late, forcing aircraft to spend 7750 hours in holding patterns and costing at least $75 million in extra fuel alone. A parallel runway has featured in long-term plans for the airport for the past 15 years since BAC bought the airport from the Commonwealth but the project was shelved in 2009. The #bnelateagain campaign was spurred by soaring flight delays. Airport bosses reactivated the proposal last year and began $60 million of preliminary land-clearing and drainage works in August last year. But the plan was thrown into doubt in February when BAC said it would not proceed with the next phase of the project unless airlines agreed to fund a quarter of the total bill through increases to landing charges over the eight-year construction period. Airlines refused, saying it was unfair to expect their customers to pay for infrastructure they not be able to use for years to come. After a prolonged stand-off, Virgin Australia broke ranks in June and struck a confidential 10-year dealon a range of infrastructure plans, including the new runway. But Qantas has refused to back down from it's position that it will pay charges for the runway once it's aircraft can use it. BAC has been under increasing pressure, with work needing to start on phase two of the parallel runway by the middle of next year at the very latest if it is to meet its promised target of opening by 2020, and has now acted to remove any uncertainty over the project going ahead on time. State Development, Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jeff Seeney has been pushing BAC for progress for several months. And previous Labor federal infrastructure minister Anthony Albanese had his department keep a close watching brief. BAC is required under the terms of its lease to ensure facilities keep with growing demand. The number of flights in and out of Brisbane has soared from 180,724 in 2009-10 to 219,920 last year and is projected to hit 258,000 by 2020.