An airport for Melbourne’s eastern suburb residents will be built by Victoria’s Paragon Premier Investment Fund with a business plan to be presented to the Victorian Government next week
The airport will run freight initially, before running commercial passenger flights and will be located between Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang – also making it handy to people living in regional towns in Eastern Victoria.
The cost of the project is still unknown, but Paragon reportedly has tentative approval for a loan of $7 billion to finance it.
The Victorian Government needs to classify the airport as necessary infrastructure in order for the financers to approve the loan.
The Shire of Cardinia identified several locations between Koo Wee Rup and Lang Lang (both approximately one hour from Melbourne by road) as potential sites for an airport, way back in 2013.
The new airport could service a third of Victoria’s population including the 300,000 residents of Gippsland. It would have the benefit of good transport connections and the potential of future rail access.
The southern and eastern regions of Melbourne are projected to grow by up to one million residents in the period to 2050, bringing the population catchment of a south east airport up to around three million – the same as South East Queensland.