It’s been a long road for Newcastle Airport but chief executive Peter Cock sees the long-waited return of overseas flights as a big plus for both his operation and the Greater Hunter Region as a whole. A deal with Virgin Australia to offer peak summer services will see Newcastle-Auckland flights return after a 16-year hiatus and means the airport can again add “International” to its name. The airline will use a ...
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New runways are invariably controversial and when Perth Airport entered the public review period for its Major Development Plan it knew it had to go above and beyond. Under the spotlight was a $520 million project that would provide almost 500 jobs during construction and was essential to the economy of Western Australia. It would inject about $2 billion into the West Australian tourism sector in the first 20 years of ...
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Fresh Australian produce exported from a farm one day and on the table in Singapore the next. That’s one of the new opportunities available to primary producers in the ACT, NSW South Coast, Riverina and the Murray-Darling Basin thanks to a deal between Canberra Airport and South Australian company Pak-Fresh Handling. The move means Pak-Fresh is now offering NSW and ACT growers the opportunity to get their product overseas via belly ...
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Launceston Airport is preparing its latest tilt at the Australian Airports Association annual awards after performing what general manager Paul Hodgen labels “an airside flip”. The flip is the latest in a series of changes at the northern Tasmanian airport as it moves to make itself an attractive alternative to its neighbour in Hobart and the state’s tourism gateway. The booming tourism industry has seen traffic at Launceston grow to almost ...
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ACI (World) Director General Angela Gittens says Australian airports are rated highly by their passengers for their work with government and airlines on waiting times for passport control, security and check-in. These efforts are earning scores higher than the rest of the world. Angela maps out the priorities for airports around the world, and how working closely with their communities continues to be essential to airports' success.
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Coffs Harbour may be missing an apostrophe but the local airport isn’t missing out on growth opportunities. The predominantly leisure-driven market has seen passenger numbers rise by almost a third over the last decade from 315,000 in 2008-09 to 418,000. Airport manager Dennis Martin says the airport has been fortunate to see long-term passenger growth as people have moved into the North Coast NSW town and tourism has blossomed.
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Darwin International Airport officials are convinced the Northern Territory’s first scheduled service from mainland China will be the seed from which big things grow. It gives Donghai a beachhead in Australia in an area boasting internationally renowned tourism drawcards such as Kakadu National Park that should prove attractive to independent Chinese travellers. In return, the NT gets a direct pipeline into China’s burgeoning tourism industry, a new trade link with ...
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Air cargo is seeing a global renaissance, with international air freight trends looking good at Australia’s major east coast airports as they welcome more overseas carriers with passenger services and accompanying cargo space. The latest figures from the International Air Transport Association show global freight demand grew by 6.8 per cent in February which, when adjusted for distortions caused by the Lunar New year, translated to a 7.7 per cent increase. ...
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Tourism Australia boss John O’Sullivan believes the importance of airports to the tourism industry cannot be understated, labelling them the “transport cathedrals” of their home cities and towns. Airports are, he observes, the first and last touchpoints for international visitors and have a critical role in terms of the impression they make. “From a Tourism Australia point of view, airports are incredibly important not just because of the supply they bring ...
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The old adage ‘if it doesn’t rain it pours’ has taken on new meaning for management at Gold Coast Airport. Not only are athletes and spectators arriving for the Commonwealth Games ahead of their start on April 4, but this has coincided with an early Easter and the popular international music festival Bluesfest at Byron Bay. The airport had a dress rehearsal of sorts on January 7 when a record day ...
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