Airport jewel in region’s success
Positive vision for FNQ’s hub
CAIRNS Airport’s dominant role in the future success of the region’s tourism industry could be amplified by one ingredient – boldness.
The Cairns Post’s dedicated Future Tourism demographer Bernard Salt said Far North Queensland – which attracts twice as many international visitors as Adelaide – could not afford to be left behind. The world of aviation is in a period of infrastructure expansion, not least in areas like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Brisbane, where hundreds of millions of dollars are tied up in construction.
“Whatever Adelaide has, you need to have twice the facilities,” Mr Salt said.
A $55 million domestic terminal upgrade is under way at Cairns Airport.
Mr Salt said the airport’s success was dependent on a whole-of community effort.
A GRAVE mistake was made some decades back when the State Government squandered an opportunity to integrate Cairns Airport domestic and international services into a single streamlined facility.
Cairns Mayor Bob Manning’s thinks so – and he was one of the port authority’s head honchos during the early part of that heady period.
Instead, the airport was sold in 2008 for $530 million so the Bligh government could expand the Cairns Hospital.
“It was a revolutionary idea at that time,” Cr Manning said.
“Nowadays, Adelaide and Canberra are pretty close to integrated and everything in Europe is integrated.
“The State Government sold the airport for about half the price it should have because it wanted to spend money on a hospital.
“Now we’ve got a situation where the biggest terminal is the one that’s least used.”
The world of aviation is in a period of infrastructure expansion, not least in areas like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Adelaide and Brisbane, where hundreds of millions of dollars are tied up in construction.
The Cairns Post’s dedicated Future Tourism demographer, Bernard Salt, said Far North Queensland – which attracts twice as many international visitors as Adelaide – could not afford to be left behind.
“Every city I go to, the airport is well understood to be a driving factor,” Mr Salt said.
“Whatever Adelaide has, you need to have twice the facilities.”
The Sunshine Coast does not feature in Australia’s top 10 international tourism markets, yet owner Sunshine Coast Council has a $303 million expansion plan underway.
The Cairns Airport has had upgrades – $55 million works underway on the domestic terminal and a $3 million international terminal spruce-up in 2018 – but it is a far cry from previous expansion plans.
A billion-dollar masterplan, including shifting general aviation and the building of new aviation and commercial enterprise precincts, was grounded in 2017.
An airport spokeswoman said future expansion was not off the cards.
“We will upgrade T1 as we continue to grow passenger traffic in there,” she said.
Mr Salt said it might be time to think big again.
“It strikes me that every major city I go to, there is just such big thinking about the airport and its future,” he said.
Cr Manning believed shifts in the market would determine what changes were needed.
“Who knows what the future holds?” he said.
“Technology and innovation will make this happen.
“I reckon the days of the jumbos and A380s are gone.
“I think we will be looking at mid-range, incredibly efficient aircraft for the future.”
Either way, Cr Manning believed terminal integration made sense.
“(Cairns Airport) would have had a much better buy if the integrated terminal had been up and running,” he said.
“You have one ramp to look after, one security to look after.
“When everything’s tighter, it becomes much more efficient.”