REMEMBER WHEN

TIRED but happy airline traffic officers relaxed after three days of the biggest August tourist ’invasion’ most could remember.

“Amazing” was the only word to describe the airlift into Coolangatta, according to a man who kept a check on the comings and goings.

At one stage, between 12.20pm and 12.35pm on the Sunday, it was reported that five airlines arrived from Melbourne and Sydney – one more than the tarmac held.

A plane which had unloaded, restarted its engines, taxied to a side road and parked to let in the newcomer.

This was the first time the control tower had faced traffic problems like this.

Between noon and 1pm on the Sunday, three giant Electras, two Viscounts and a Fokker Friendship were on the ground at the same time, and other incoming planes were “in the stack” waiting for newly airborne outgoing planes to clear the area.

For its size, Coolangatta was said to be perhaps the world’s busiest airport at that weekend.

The ‘invasion’ began on the Friday night – just hours after southern schools started their winter vacation.

Traffic officers at Coolangatta were still processing the first arrivals at midnight on the Friday.

Then, at around 11am on Saturday the tourists began arriving in battalions.

Eighteen planes, many of them the big Electras with up to 82 passengers aboard, arrived like peak-hour trains at Melbourne’s Flinders Street and Sydney’s Central stations.

The tourists stepped out in suits and coats to be greeted by “champagne weather”.