Brisbane Airport Corporation invited TheOnsiteManager along to their community workshop to talk about their latest projects, how they are being implemented and what they mean for tourism businesses in Queensland.
Over the next decade, BAC are investing $3.8 Billion into new infrastructure projects. International travel is growing at a rate of 6% PA presently and the corporation wants to ensure the Brisbane Airport offers a world-class facility that can accommodate this continued growth.
The first thing that they pointed out was the New Parallel Runway (NPR) project. Paul Koglan, their lead project manager, tells us it will be operational within 4 years. Currently, the airport can accommodate up to 55 landings and take-offs per hour, which makes it the 3rd busiest airport in Australia. This new runway can more-than double that output with one runway open for take-offs as the other receives landings, concurrently. This will make Brisbane Airport the highest efficiency, highest capacity airport as well as the largest physical airport in the nation. That’s exciting news for our state’s tourism industry.
BAC expect this new development will drive significant interest from international carriers who will consider opening more international routes to Brisbane. It will directly translate to more tourism dollars flooding into Queensland. In fact, the BAC expects to contribute $13.4 billion per year into the Australian economy, $8.2 billion per year into the Brisbane economy.
There’s several other major projects underway including a huge expansion of the international terminal to accommodate more international flights as well as much larger planes like the A380’s with double aero-bridges being installed. They’re also investing in faster arrivals and departures, with a goal to cut the processing time it takes an international traveller to get off his flight and onto a regional flight (to cairns, gold coast, etc) from 120 minutes down to 45 minutes. They’re investing heavily in smart immigration technology and seamless luggage transfer systems to realise this goal.
Other developments include $150 million being spent on new hotels at the airport, $44million on new car parks and $20 million on several new executive lounges. It was a fascinating meeting and a great opportunity to get the latest details on everything BAC are doing to drive tourism dollars into the economy. We’ll be catching up again in December and I look forward to hearing more then.