Gold Coast (airport)

Until 1999, Gold Coast Airport bore the name of Coolangatta Airport and originally (since 1936) operated three runways on cleared grass, used only for transit aircraft carrying air mail between the cities of Sydney and Brisbane . The first passenger flight was accepted by the airport in 1939, and regular passenger service was opened by Queensland Airlines and Butler Air Transport only after the Second World War . Ansett Airlines began commercial traffic at the airport in 1950 on Douglas DC-3 aircraft, Trans Australia Airlines in 1954 using Douglas DC-3 , Douglas DC-4 and Convair aircraft with the opening of regular passenger routes to other Australian cities.

By 1958, the steering lanes and runways had a hard surface, and ten years later, a complete reconstruction of the runway was carried out in order to be able to receive the DC-9 and Lockheed L-188 Electra jets. In 1981, Acting Australian Prime Minister Anthony Douglas (Douglas Anthony) opened a new passenger terminal building, named after the country's politician Eric Robinson and designed to serve more than 650,000 passengers a year. The following year, the length of the main runway was extended to 2,042 meters, which allowed the airport to be certified for receiving Boeing 767 and Airbus A300 wide-body jet airliners by Australian airlines Ansett Australia and Trans Australia Airlines on flights to Melbourne and Sydney, respectively.

On January 1, 1988, Gold Coast Airport transferred from government ownership to the ownership of the Federal Airport Corporation, the airport was fully privatized ten years later, on May 29, 1998, and Queensland Airports Limited "). In 1999, the owner company name was changed to Gold Coast Airport Pty Ltd (GCAPL), ^[3] which currently owns and operates three airports in Gold Coast, Mount Isa and Townsville. ^[four]

In 1990, Gold Coast Airport took its first international charter flight from New Zealand , and by 1998 the New Zealand discount airline Freedom Air (a subsidiary of the national carrier Air New Zealand ) opened a regular route on Boeing 737 planes from New Zealand Hamilton Airport .

In 2007, the Gold Coast Airport launched non-stop regular flights from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to the Asian airline AirAsia X. By January 2008, this route was so popular that tickets for all flights were sold until the end of March, therefore AirAsia X announced the opening of daily regular flights en route Kuala Lumpur - Gold Coast.

In May 2007, work began to increase the length of the main runway, parallel to the taxiways. ^{[5] The} planned runway length is 2,500 meters and will allow servicing of heavier aircraft. The complex of works was officially opened on May 16, 2007 by the vice-premier of the government of the country - Minister of Transport and Regional Development of Australia Mark Wale . ^[6]

The project currently announced for the reconstruction of the passenger terminal has a budget of $ 100 million, and the Australian company ADCO Constructions has been identified as the main developer of the project and the company carrying out the main part of the project. Renovation work began in early 2008, is scheduled for completion in 2010 and consists of two phases. At the first stage, the passenger terminal usable area will be almost doubled (by 27,000 square meters), including the commissioning of self-service terminals on domestic and international airlines and 40 units of check-in counters. At the second stage, work will be carried out to expand the second floor of the passenger terminal with an eye on the projected increase in passenger traffic in the next ten years.

The Main Terminal (which includes Terminals 1 and 2) serves Qantas , Jetstar Airways , Virgin Blue , Air New Zealand , Pacific Blue Airlines and AirAsia X flights . Tiger Airways Australia operates a low-cost Passenger Terminal 3, approximately two hundred meters from the Main Terminal building. Terminal 3 is an almost complete analogue of the passenger Terminal 4 at Melbourne Airport , only on a smaller scale.

On September 22, 2008, the expansion of the Air Pacific airline network from December 22 of the same year and the opening of regular flights to Nadi International Airport ( Fiji ) with frequency of flights twice a week were announced.

Domestic lines

* Flight to Newcastle Airport opened in August 2008

International lines

* Flight to Kansai International Airport opened in November 2008.

List of the busiest airports in Australia

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