Creek to Creek Chamber Unites in Support of ILS

Several of the city’s Chambers of Commerce have come out in support of the installation of an Instrument Landing System (ILS) at Gold Coast Airport.

Representing the business community in regions under the proposed ILS flight path, the Southern Gold Coast, Creek to Creek and Gold Coast Central Chambers of Commerce have written letters to the Airport supporting the installation of an ILS.

“Every major airport around the country has an ILS installed,” said Southern Gold Coast Chamber president, Gail O’Neill. “It is something that has been discussed for years as a vital piece of technology to get our airport up to speed with other major cities.

“We have congratulated the Airport and Airservices Australia for their rigorous public consultation on this issue, but there is scaremongering going on within the community that is putting the whole project at risk.

“A lot of research has gone into the benefits and implications of installing this system at Gold Coast Airport, and it is not doing the city any good to ignore the experts at the Airport and Airservices Australia by simplifying the facts into a one-sided argument,” she said.

Gold Coast Central Chamber’s Vice President of Robina/Varsity, Alan Taylor and Vice President of Burleigh, Kelly Zirilli, joined John Forrester from the Mudgeeraba Chamber and Hilary Jacobs from the Creek to Creek Chamber in support of the ILS.

“We need to encourage more people to come to our city for tourism and business – especially from international markets. Our tourism economy relies on it, and major airlines want to see this technology in place to land here,” said Ms Jacobs.

Mr Taylor added, “It’s not about letting one side win over the other – this is about the future of our Airport, ensuring safety and minimising costly diversions of arriving passenger aircraft into the Gold Coast during bad weather,” he said.

Ms O’Neill urged individual members of the community to get all the facts to make an informed decision.

“There is still a curfew that ensures residents along the flight path are not disrupted between the hours of 11pm and 6am, and there is an estimated 10 days of the year where it is expected the weather would be so bad on the Gold Coast to require the use of the ILS for 100% of incoming flights,” she said.

“The Airport will still respond to any arising noise complaints as they do now. This is a step forward for our city, not backward.”

Airservices Australia are running community drop-in information sessions at the following times and locations: