Avalon airport becomes parking lot for fleet of grounded jets

AVALON Airport has become a parking lot for passenger jets grounded by the coronavirus travel bans at what would usually be its busiest time of year.

While most of the airport’s commercial flights have now stopped, it remains open for the time being with two Sydney Jetstar flights still scheduled each day.

Its CEO Justin Giddings said hosting the grounded planes was one way of securing some income and keeping staff employed during the shutdowns. “It keeps the airport ticking over a little bit,” Mr Giddings said.

He said Qantas and Virgin had nine planes parked at the airport yesterday, and was bringing a team of about 35 engineers to the region to keep them and other aircraft in working order.

“There are more planes planned to come here in the next few weeks. Qantas is looking to bring up to 50,” he said. “I saw the first one come in the other day, and it was actually quite sad because you realise the reason it’s here is because it’s being taken out of action.”

Mr Giddings said the Easter school holidays were traditionally the busiest time of year for his business and Geelong’s visitor economy, and the coming blow that would be suffered could not be overstated.

He said his energies were now focused on keeping as many of the airport’s 80 staff in work as possible. Some will be asked to catch up on cleaning, painting or maintenance tasks, others will be redeployed into other parts of the business or might find work elsewhere with the airport’s owner Linfox.

Mr Giddings said some workers would also be encouraged to bring forward annual leave, reduce their hours or complete certain training requirements.