Latest news and insights from Australia’s airports

Matt Cocker: “The people who built the airport initially will be the ones that rebuild the airport”

It was a sobering moment at Hobart International Airport in March of this year – the day first since 1956 where no flights landed at Tasmania’s main aviation gateway. The devastating impact of COVID-19 would ultimately see the airport lose 98 per cent of its passenger traffic and flights to major market Melbourne reduce to just one a day providing essential services. But it was the day the airport fell silent that ...

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Health and Safety is top priority at airports as they prepare for increase in travellers

Perth Airport is not just ready to accommodate more passengers as soon as travel restrictions are lifted but it now has the accreditation to prove it can do it in accordance with strict global health standards. The West Australian gateway was the first airport in Australia and one of only a handful internationally, to get health accreditation form Airports Council International. Cairns Airport has since joined it in proving it has developed ...

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Canberra’s new alliance provides much-needed escape

A move by Canberra Airport to capitalise on the ACT’s strong record of suppressing the coronavirus has paid off with a cluster of new services by smaller airlines. The strategy was designed to cater for pent-up leisure demand from Canberrans as borders opened thanks to the city’s good COVID record. Beach escapes include destinations such as Port Macquarie and Ballina-Byron Bay in NSW as well as Queensland’s Sunshine Coast and Cairns. The Alliance ...

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Tourism strategy at Whitsunday develops new growth

For Whitsunday Coast Airport, the coronavirus pandemic has been a case of being deserted one day, flat out the next. The airport serving one of Queensland’s premier tourist spots has shot from zero flights in mid-June to 23 flights a week from Brisbane from October 24. Subject to border closures, it also has three flights a week due to start operating from Sydney on November 1 and expects to quickly get back ...

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Airport remains optimistic for new project which could add 4,500 jobs to struggling economy

The national response to COVID-19 has been a double-barrelled disappointment for Newcastle Airport but Chief Executive Peter Cock remains optimistic the Australian Government will back a project which could add almost 4,500 jobs to the region’s economy. Dr Cock had hoped the government would directly back in the recent budget a proposal to work with Defence and upgrade the airport’s runway to Code E, enabling Newcastle to cater for widebody aircraft ...

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Cargo activity triples at “Field of Dreams” airport

Toowoomba Wellcamp Airport identified freight as a major opportunity from the get-go and is reaping the harvest of that foresight with a tripling of cargo activity and a planned $10 million regional distribution hub. The centre will be built by airport owners the Wagner family with support from the Queensland government and will add 3,500 square metres to existing storage facilities that already boast three temperature controlled cool rooms. It will be ...

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Solar power taking flight at Melbourne Airport

The biggest Australian solar power array of its type is set to be completed at Melbourne Airport by the middle of next month and will further boost the airport’s environmental credentials when it fires up. The massive 192,000 square metre array is the size of 10 soccer fields and its 17-gigawatt hours of annual electricity production account for about 15 percent of the airport’s annual consumption. That is enough to power all ...

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Van Pelt: Maintaining and growing Launceston as a vital transport link is the key

New Launceston Airport chief executive Hans van Pelt is moving into the airport business during an unparalleled chapter of aviation history with a resolve to get the airport on the road to recovery as quickly as possible. The new airport chief may be moving into the key piece of Northern Tasmanian infrastructure at the direst of times, but he is confident about its long-term future. “Tassie will bounce back which is obviously ...

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Nation’s major gateway funding a road to recovery

As continuing uncertainty about the coronavirus pandemic forces airports large and small to recast their plans, a $2 billion Sydney Airport equity raise aims to ensure the nation’s major gateway is prepared for all contingencies in what it describes as the most stringent travel restrictions in Australian history. Sydney Airport’s first equity raising since 2013 comes as optimism about a domestic revival has been dented by further border closures and as ...

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World-first project to build Australia’s most remote paved runway

Building a new aerodrome is never easy but spare a thought for the unique challenges facing a world-first project to build Australia’s most remote paved runway in the pristine environment of Antarctica. Just the delivery of materials and infrastructure to build a proposed 2700m runway at Davis research station in East Antarctica is expected to take place over many years and require a combination of a large icebreaker and ice-strengthened freighters. This ...

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