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Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) has recorded its best month post-COVID-19, with passenger numbers increasing across its four airports in January.
In total, more than 760,000 passengers travelled through Gold Coast, Townsville, Mount Isa and Longreach Airports last month, with Gold Coast alone accounting for more than 622,000 passengers.
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Both Gold Coast Airport and the group as a whole recorded their fifth busiest month on record, while Townsville and Mount Isa saw their third-best January and Longreach passengers increased by 14 per cent since the same time last year.
“Townsville Airport, while not as busy as it is in the winter months, did see positive growth with more than 15,200 additional passengers travelling to and from Brisbane – a 26 per cent increase on January 2024,” QAL chief commercial officer Adam Rowe said.
“Gold Coast Airport recorded strong year-on-year growth on key markets – with five per cent more passengers travelling on the Melbourne route and 26 per cent growth on New Zealand services when compared with 2024.”
According to Rowe, seeing passenger growth across all four QAL airports is “a really positive sign for travel and the regions our airports support”.
“We were also really pleased to see the popularity of our seasonal Hong Kong services, with more than 3,000 passengers travelling on the seasonal route in the first 2 weeks alone,” he said.
“Demand for travel is strong – it continues to outstrip supply, particularly on key markets such as Gold Coast to Sydney and Melbourne, where close to 90 per cent of seats are filled.
“We’re working closely with our airline partners to assess where we can build in additional capacity to support that demand.”
Gold Coast Airport in 2023–24 saw its best financial year on record for domestic traffic with 5.6 million domestic travellers in 2023–24, up more than 210,000 on the previous high-water mark, as well as 706,000 international travellers. Sydney and Melbourne routes to the Gold Coast were among the five busiest in the country.
International passengers were up around 5 per cent on the previous year, with trans-Tasman routes stronger at an 8 per cent increase.
The airport last July opened a refurbished domestic lounge.
Geoff Fairless
says:Once again, I have to highlight the fact that traffic into uncontrolled airports in Australia is growing. The FAA in the US has ways of incrementally increasing services into such airports, but in Australia we do not.
I heard an incredible tale last week of the shambolic processes surrounding Moranbah airport, an important mining hub. Four IFR pilots trying to coordinate their arrival on the CTAF while the ATC Class G “traffic provider” continuously broadcast on the area frequency, interrupting their plans.
The Pilbara CASA OAR report that I have mentioned before that was very critical of Airservices has now been scrapped. (I have a copy if anyone is interested) The OAR inspectors have been told to do it again. I suspect so that any criticism of Airservices can be removed.
I believe the problem is the Commonwealth’s insistence that only they can provide ATC services. (Civil and Military) This means that an ATC Tower is way too expensive for a small airport seeking to add safety to its operations. CAGRO is the only option and that is cut off from Airservices information and coordination, and so is barely useful.
The ATC market needs to be opened up to small independent operators, working for the airport, and providing an aerodrome service during the hours it is needed. CASA could approve such an operation provided the Commonwealth removed CASR Part 172.024
172.024 Applicant for approval as ATS provider
A person is eligible to apply for approval as an ATS provider if the person is any of the following:
(a) the Commonwealth;
(b) AA;
(c) a person who is to provide an air traffic service:
(i) in cooperation with AA, in accordance with paragraph 11(3)(b) of the Air Services Act 1995; or
(ii) by arrangement with AA, in accordance with paragraph 11(3)(c) of the Air Services Act 1995.