Avalon hits new heights

Retail, restaurants in $20m-plus airport extension

WORK on Avalon Airport’s $20 million-plus international extension, which will include a retail and duty-free offering, are set to begin next month.

The construction of a larger terminal to allow for international customs and border agencies is required before AirAsia commences twice-daily flights to Kuala Lumpur at the end of the year.

Avalon Airport chief Justin Giddings said he expects initial service works to begin in about a month.

Mr Giddings also revealed the expansion will include a passenger-focused retail and dining experience characteristic of international airports.

“Initially it may not be extensive because obviously we’ve got a time frame that we need to build to but certainly it’s on the agenda that we would have duty-free, more food and beverage outlets and some general shopping as well,” he said.

It comes as Geelong tourism chief Roger Grant says a hotel at the airport is “inevitable” and could be a reality within five years.

Like a retail offering, Mr Grant said that a nearby hotel was consistent with what travellers expected to be available at international airports across the world.

“I think it’s inevitable ... you would think logically if the international flights are successful, and we see an increase in other carriers coming in both domestically and internationally, that would whet the appetite of the hotel sector and you would see a hotel out there within the next five years,” Mr Grant said.

“When you consider airlines have to have the capacity, if a plane is delayed or held over, to accommodate quite a few hundred people (a hotel) forms part of that contingency as well.”

Geelong’s lack of short-stay accommodation was brought into sharp focus last month when the region’s hotels, motels and caravan parks were fully booked during the Australia Day weekend.

Mr Grant said a hotel at Avalon would not replace the need for 1500 to 2000 additional guest rooms across the region — nor would it be the location for a much talked about five-star hotel — but would service a specific type of client.

“It has its own need, and its own market, in its own right,” he said.

“You get off a plane at 9pm and think ‘let’s stay the night at the airport, we will grab our car first thing in the morning’ ... or if your flight is at 6am, ‘let’s grab a hotel (room) at the airport that night and have a sleep and feel in a better shape to step onto an aeroplane’.”