Blue sky up ahead
AFTER the Commonwealth Games scales down and ships out next April, Gold Coast Airport will be just getting started, with half a billion dollars of work in their redevelopment pipeline.
Gold Coast Airport chief operating officer Marion Charlton said the facility’s three-storey southern terminal expansion would commence in the third quarter of 2018, along with a new hotel.
Other yet-to-be-announced “substantial developments” on newly bought airport land are set to follow.
Ms Charlton said the hotel would prove a key driver of the airport’s transformation into a commercial hub.
“There has been billions of dollars spent on new infrastructure across the Gold Coast in the lead-up to the Games, but once the business of the Games is done, we’re diving straight into the most significant period of development in the airport’s history,” she said. “As I’ve said before, the Commonwealth Games is the wedding, not the marriage, for us.
“We’ve been working hard to achieve what was feasible to do in time for the Games – including self-check-in and bag drop as well as an expansion of our apron.
“The airport has also been acquiring land recently as part of a broader property strategy which will see other substantial developments being announced in due course.”
The hotel will generate 90 construction jobs, while the terminal expansion will generate 230. Once complete, the projects will facilitate 64 and 80 full-time operational positions respectively.
Gold Coast Airport has commenced an expansion of its apron capacity, creating approximately 20,000sq m of additional apron area – or nearly two-and-a-half football fields – to facilitate parking for four domestic or two international aircraft.
The project is due for completion in March 2018, in time for the uplift in passengers expected over Games time.
Installation of the airport’s Instrument Landing System (ILS) is also on track for the system to operate by August, following a delay caused by an appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The southern terminal expansion and Rydges hotel are both slated for completion by late 2019. Gold Coast Airport handles more than 6.4 million passenger movements annually.