Gold Coast Airport Happenings

Gold Coast Airport Muscles into 6th Spot

Gold Coast Airport is now the sixth busiest airport in Australia based on latest passenger figures. In the 2007 calendar year, the airport handled more than 3.9 million passengers, up almost 8% on 2006 figures. December 2007 was an all time record month for the airport with 374,000 passengers using passing through Gold Coast Airport. New services from AirAsia X and Tiger Airways coupled with increased capacity from other airline partners have contributed to this growth. Passenger numbers through the airport have more than tripled over the past five years with the airport jumping from 8th to 6th spot on the ‘passenger throughput’ ladder.

Airport Water Conservation Takes Off

Water is hot property at Gold Coast Airport as the airport aims to decrease water usage across the site by at least 25 percent over the coming year as part of its Water Efficiency Management Plan. “We’ve already made enormous leaps forward to achieving this goal with many of our tenants also taking up the conservation challenge,” said Paul Donovan, Chief Operating Officer for Gold Coast Airport. The airport also recently achieved ISO14001 recertification ensuring sound environmental management is incorporated in all activities.

Best Low Coast Airport Award

Gold Coast Airport has been voted ‘Best Low Cost Airport, in the Asia Pacific’ for the second time in as many months. The airport took out the top accolade in January at the ‘Budgie$ Best in Class Awards’ at the 5th Annual Asia Pacific Low Cost Airline Congress at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore. Less than two months prior, Gold Coast Airport was named Low Cost Airport of the Year 2007 by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).

Terminal Redevelopment on Track

Gold Coast Airport’s $100million terminal redevelopment is on track with final design now complete. “Tenders were let late last year to ADCO Constructions and we expect construction of stage one to start by mid 2008,” said Paul Donovan, Chief Operating Officer Gold Coast Airport. Stage one of the project will double the size of the existing facility to almost 27,000 square metres, incorporating domestic and international operations with self service kiosks and 36 common user check-in desks. The works will accommodate forecast growth for the next 10 years with a further expansion, stage two, scheduled to kick in upon demand. The project was approved by the Federal Government last year.