Etiqueta: Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport

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Melbourne to reconfigure domestic terminal for int’l ops

Melbourne Tullamarine airport said it will reconfigure its domestic terminal and install «swing gates» allowing both domestic and international operations within the next five years, The Airport Professional has reported.

The reconfiguration would allow the airlines, mainly Qantas (QF, Sydney Kingsford Smith) and Virgin Australia International (VA, Brisbane Int’l), to use their widebody aircraft more flexibly for both types of flights.

«Swing gates» will be installed both in Terminal 1, used by Qantas, and in Terminal 3, used by Virgin Australia. Initially, the airport plans to convert just three Code E gates, but this number is set to grow to six to eight within a decade.

«What these projects are intended to do is meet that international growth challenge by using latent or spare capacity in the domestic terminals,» airport Planning Executive Michael Jarvis said. «[The aircraft] might have come in from a domestic sector, it might be going off to an international destination in Asia or North America and the airline can leave the aircraft at the gate without having to tow it to the international terminal with all of the fuss and money that involves.»

Both Australian airlines, as well as all foreign carriers, currently use Terminal 2 for international operations. The facility is sandwiched between Terminals 1 and 3 and has limited potential for expansion

According to the ch-aviation capacity module, Qantas and Virgin Australia are currently the largest airlines serving Melbourne with 30.8% and 23.4% market share by capacity, respectively. Qantas operates 765 weekly departures, including 85 on international routes; while Virgin Australia operates 588 weekly departures of which 33 are to destinations abroad.

The airport also has Terminal 4, which is used by local LCCs, such as Tigerair Australia (TT, Melbourne Tullamarine) and Jetstar Airways (JQ, Melbourne Tullamarine).

Source: ch-aviation.com

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Melbourne Airport plans A$3.5bn upgrade works

Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport has revealed an A$3.5bn redevelopment plan that includes the construction of a new runway, an expanded international terminal and a transport hub, in an effort to meet the increase in passenger traffic expected for the coming decades.

“The vision for the terminal is to get to 100 million passengers, so to be able to meet that 70 million passengers by 2038 we absolutely need another runway, that is part of the planning,” Melbourne Airport parking and ground access chief Lorie Argus told 3AW.

Argus said that the airport will launch a consultation with the community airlines about the project, which will also overhaul how passengers reach and leave the airport. He added: “For anyone who arrives into Melbourne today, that area the arrivals hall is quite constrained, so we’re looking at a large expansion there of the international terminal to really bring us up to the world’s best class.

“We’re looking at a completely new transport hub which will see all of the pick-up and drop off integrated into the front of the terminal, actually using some of the car park you see today in T1, 2, 3.”

Melbourne Airport said it is expecting 68 million visitors a year by 2038, having registered over 30 million passengers and around 250,000 tonnes of freight in 2016/2017.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Lyell Strambi told ABC Radio Melbourne that the first changes will be seen within 12 months, when moving walkways will be installed in some parts of the airport.

“The scheme is to really have flyovers all the way from the Tullamarine Freeway, sweeping by the various terminals and then having them run off to each of these terminals,” he said.

As part of the project, a 3km third runway is to open by 2023, while the existing east-west runway will be extended in the next nine years. A fourth runway, running north-south, is also included in the scheme, meaning the airport will be able to handle 100 departures and arrivals every hour. Strambi added that the plan will be entirely funded by private enterprise and will not receive the government’s financial support.

However, the hub failed to provide information on the construction of a rail link to the airport, which both the federal and state governments have recently been pushing for.

The Public Transport Users Association (PTUA), one of the rail link’s loudest advocates, expressed disappointment towards the lack of a plan. “With growing numbers of travellers, and tens of thousands of workers in the airport precinct, this is one of the biggest employment centres in Melbourne with no high capacity public transport,” said PTUA spokesman Daniel Bowen.

“Tullamarine is one of the world’s busiest airports with no rail link, so it’s no surprise that despite repeated road upgrades, traffic congestion is a continuing problem.”

A spokesperson for Victorian Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said that the state was “working constructively with the Commonwealth on a preliminary business case” for the construction of a rail link between the city and Tullamarine Airport.

Source: Airport-technology