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This article is about the Australian airport. For other uses, see Melbourne Airport (disambiguation).
Melbourne Airport (IATA: MEL, ICAO: YMML), also known as Tullamarine Airport, is the busiest of the four airports in Melbourne, and the second busiest in Australia. A major domestic hub, it is curfew-free and handles more freight than any other airport in Australia,[3] and is the most common destination for the airports of five of Australia's seven capital cities. It is part of the Melbourne–Sydney air route, which is the fourth busiest passenger air route in the world, and the second busiest in the Asia-Pacific region.[4] Melbourne Airport has been the recipient of the International Air Transport Association Eagle Award,[5] two National Tourism Awards,[6][7] and has been ranked in the top five airports worldwide numerous times.[8][9][10] Skytrax classifies it as a four-star airport.[11] It is the home base for passenger airlines Jetstar Airways and Tiger Airways Australia, and cargo airlines Australian air Express and Toll Priority. Qantas and Virgin Blue utilise the airport as a major hub, and the airport was the home base for now-defunct Ansett Australia. The airport is located 23 kilometres (14 mi) northwest of the Melbourne city centre, adjacent to the suburb of Tullamarine. It is considered its own suburb—Melbourne Airport (postcode 3045). With two runways and four terminals, over thirty airlines operate flights to a total of more than sixty destinations. In excess of 24 million passengers used the airport during the 2007–08 fiscal year,[1] and nearly 200,000 aircraft movements were recorded in that time.[2] Since 2004, Melbourne Airport has faced competition from Avalon Airport, located 55 kilometres (34 mi) to the southwest of the city centre, for domestic operations.[12] A second commercial airport is unique for an Australian city.[12]
HistoryBy the early 1960s, the nearby Essendon Airport was becoming insufficient to meet the needs of a primary airport for Melbourne due to increasing worldwide demand for air travel. Essendon's runways were too short to handle aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10, and the terminals were unable to handle the increased passenger traffic. Expansion was not possible due to surrounding housing, and the noise from larger aircraft made Essendon an unsuitable site. In October 1964, Ansett Australia launched the Boeing 727, the first commercially used jet in Australia, putting the airport's facilities under further strain. [13] On 27 November 1962, Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced a five-year plan to provide Melbourne with a AU$45 million (equivalent to $320,560,000 in present day terms[14]) "jetport" by 1967.[15][16] A site in proximity to Essendon was chosen, in Tullamarine.[13] In line with the five-year plan, the airport was ready to handle aircraft by 1967, but not passenger flights. Air Force One landed at the airport on 22 December 1967 carrying United States President Lyndon B. Johnson.[17] Prime Minister John Gorton officially opened the airport on 1 July 1970 to much fanfare. The first international flights arrived soon after. In the first year of operations, the airport handled six international airlines and 155,275 international passengers.[18] The first domestic flight landed on 26 June 1971[19] and the first landing of the Boeing 747 occurred in the same year.[18] In 1988, the Australian Government formed the Federal Airports Corporation (FAC), which took over Melbourne Airport and 21 other airports around Australia; a prelude to the privatisation of these airports.[18] The domestic terminals were significantly upgraded in 1990. An upgrade of the international terminals occurred from 1991 to 1996.[18] In April 1994, the Australian Government announced that all airports operated by Federal Airports Corporation would be privatised in several phases.[20] The carparks were upgraded between 1995 and August 1997.[18] On 2 July 1997, Melbourne Airport was privatised; it was leased to the newly formed Australia Pacific Airports Corporation Limited (who would also go on to lease Launceston Airport), a company owned by a group of Australian fund managers, for 50 years, with options for a further 49.[18] In July 1997, the Melbourne Airport website was launched, providing Australia's first real time flight operations data over the internet.[18] Since privatisation, several investments in infrastructure have been undertaken, including extensions of runways, car parks and terminals. Melbourne Airport was originally called Tullamarine Airport after the adjacent suburb of the same name.[13] International was sporadically used in the name of the airport. After privatisation, the name was changed to Melbourne Airport, following the lead of most other major Australian airports. It is still commonly referred to as Tullamarine or locally, simply as Tulla;[21][22] this is also used to distinguish the airport from Avalon, Essendon and Moorabbin airports. Awards and accoladesMelbourne Airport has been the recipient of numerous awards. The International Air Transport Association ranked it among the top five airports in the world in 1997 and 1998, [8][23] and in 2003 presented it with the Eagle Award. [5][24]The Australian Airport Association named it the Airport of the Year in 1999,[23] while Business Traveller Magazine and Airports Council International have ranked Melbourne highly; in the top ten every year from 1996 to 2000.,[23][9] and top five for airports that handle between 15 and 25 million passengers.[10][25] Melbourne is classified as a four-star airport by Skytrax.[11] The airport has received recognition in other areas. It has won national and state tourism awards,[6][7] and Singapore Airlines presented the airport with the Service Partner Award and Premier Business Partner Award in 2002 and 2004 respectively.[23][26] In 2006, the airport won the Australian Construction Achievement Award for the runway widening project, which was dubbed "the most outstanding example of construction excellence for 2006".[27] OperationsMelbourne is the second busiest airport in Australia after Sydney. The airport is curfew-free and operates 24 hours a day, although there are few passenger aircraft movements between 2 am and 4 am, only freight aircraft.[28] In 2004, the environmental management systems at the airport were accredited ISO 14001, the world's best practice standard, making it the first in Australia to receive such accreditation.[29] Route developmentsBetween 2005 and 2007, Melbourne Airport faced capacity strains with a shortfall of 500,000 international seats.[21] British Airways pulled out of Melbourne, but Qantas replaced the lost flights in March 2006.[30] This was compounded by the loss of the last European carrier, Austrian Airlines, in March 2007.[31] Over the 2008–09 fiscal year, there has been a series of capacity increases at the airport, resulting in 725,000 new international seats.[32] Korean Air began flying to Seoul on 22 September 2007, providing the first direct link to South Korea.[33] Norfolk Air began operations, with a weekly flight to Norfolk Island. Cathay Pacific increased its services to Hong Kong to thrice daily in October 2007[34] and Thai increased their flights to twice daily on 30 March 2008. Qantas began flights to Shanghai in 2008, Air China made its Shanghai–Beijing flights direct by avoiding Sydney,[35] and China Southern Airlines added capacity to Guangzhou.[36] Domestically, Skywest introduced a thrice-weekly Perth–Kalgoorlie–Melbourne service in November 2007 to cater for the mining industry, but this will end in November 2008.[37] Tiger Airways Australia began operations in November 2007 with Melbourne Airport as its sole hub, serving destinations throughout Australia from Terminal 4. Air New Zealand began daily direct flights to San Francisco via Auckland from 30 March 2008.[28] Jetstar began flights to Singapore via Darwin on 17 April 2008, competing on price compared to the traditional non-stop flight.[38] Air Vanuatu began a weekly service to Port Vila on 5 June 2007[39] and Norfolk Air added a second weekly flight to Norfolk Island on 1 September 2008.[40] Both Malaysia Airlines and Garuda Indonesia increased their services in July 2008.[41] Pacific Blue entered the underserved Auckland market with daily flights from 22 September 2008 using the 737-800,[42] while Air New Zealand also increased capacity.[43] Qantas will significantly increase capacity to Los Angeles by progressively replacing the non-stop 747-400ER with the A380-800 from 20 October 2008[44] and replacing the last A330-200 one-stop services with the 747-400. Low cost carrier AirAsia X will begin flying non-stop to Kuala Lumpur from 12 November 2008, competing with Malaysia Airlines on price. It will initially be flying four times a week before eventually increasing to daily.[45] Emirates Airline will go thrice daily on 3 February 2009 using the Airbus A340-500.[46] Etihad Airways will launch daily flights to Abu Dhabi from 29 March 2009 using the A340-600, providing further competition in the Middle East market.[47] Prospective users and routes
Airbus A380
The A380 at the airport for the first time as part of the testing programme
Construction works have been undertaken to prepare the airport for the arrival of the double-decker Airbus A380. The A380 has been purchased by several airlines using the airport including Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Thai, China Southern Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Etihad Airways and Emirates. The improvements included the construction of dual airbridges (Gates 9 and 11) with the ability to board both decks simultaneously to reduce turnaround times, widening of the North/South runway by 15 metres (49 ft) as well as remote stands and taxiways. The airport extended the international terminal building by 20 metres (66 ft) to include new penthouse airline lounges, and constructed an additional baggage carousel in the arrivals hall. As a result, the airport was the first in Australia to be capable of handling the A380.[67] The A380 made its first test flight into the airport on 14 November 2005.[68] On 15 May 2008, the A380 made its first passenger flight into the airport, when a Singapore Airlines Sydney-bound flight was diverted from Sydney Airport because of fog.[69] From October 20 2008, Qantas will be the first airline to operate the Airbus A380 from the airport, flying non-stop to Los Angeles International Airport twice a week. This will be the inaugural route for the Qantas A380.[44] Qantas will be followed by Emirates Airline, who will operate the A380 to Dubai International Airport in 2009.[70] Singapore Airlines intended to start operating the A380 to Singapore Changi Airport in 2008,[71] but this has been delayed to the first quarter of 2010.[72] Avalon AirportWhen Jetstar was established in 2004, it decided to operate interstate flights from Avalon rather than Melbourne Airport.[12] This made Melbourne the only city in Australia with two commercially served airports, and generated airport competition for the first time in an Australia city. To compete with Avalon, Melbourne established the Budget Terminal and lowered landing fees. This made it the cheapest arrival point in Australia,[73] and one of the cheapest international airports in the world.[74] AirAsia X was widely expected to launch international flights to Kuala Lumpur from Avalon in October 2008.[75] However, Linfox's proposal to upgrade Avalon to international facilities was rejected on 5 June 2008.[76] This prompted AirAsia X to announce flights from Melbourne Airport on 20 August 2008.[45] Nevertheless, Linfox has vowed to resolve the Government's concerns and build the terminal.[76] RunwaysMelbourne Airport has two intersecting runways, a 3,657 metres (12,000 ft) North/South runway and a 2,286 metres (7,500 ft) East/West runway. As traffic is growing, several runway expansions are planned. An 843 metres (2,770 ft) extension of the North-South runway to lengthen it to 4,500 metres (15,000 ft) and a 1,214 metres (3,980 ft) extension of the East-West runway to a total of 3,500 metres (11,000 ft) are planned.[77] Two new runways are planned; a 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) runway parallel to the current North-South runway,[77] and another 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) runway south of the current East-West runway.[77] Traffic movement is expected to reach 248,000 per annum by 2017, necessitating a third runway.[78] On 5 June 2008, it was announced that the airport intends to install a Category III landing system, allowing planes to land in low visibility conditions, such as fog, by the end of 2008. This system will be the first of its kind in Australia.[79] Melbourne CentreIn addition to the onsite control tower, the airport is home to Melbourne Centre, an air traffic control facility that is responsible for the separation of aircraft in Australia's busiest Flight Information Region, Melbourne FIR. Melbourne FIR contains airspace over Victoria, Tasmania, southern New South Wales, most of South Australia, the southern half of Western Australia, and airspace over the India and Southern Ocean. In total, the centre controls 6% of the world's airspace.[80] The airport is also the home of the Canberra Approach and Melbourne Approach facilities, which provide control services to aircraft arriving and departing at those airports. Traffic and statisticsMelbourne Airport recorded more than 24.2 million passengers in 2007–08. 4.77 million of those were international, with the remaining 19.36 million being domestic. There were 193,826 aircraft movements, the vast majority being domestic passenger services.[2] In the long term, the compounded average annual growth rate (CAAGR) for passenger movements is between 3.3% and 4.3%. For aircraft movements, the CAAGR is between 1.8% and 2.6%.[77] This firmly entrenches Melbourne as Australia's second busiest airport, ahead of Brisbane,[81] and behind Sydney.[82] The following table lists passenger statistics for Melbourne Airport. Forecast statistics are in dark grey.
AccessCarMelbourne Airport is 23 kilometres (14 mi) from the Central Business District, and is accessible via CityLink and the Tullamarine Freeway. One freeway offramp runs directly into the airport grounds, with a second opened in 2005 to the south to serve freight transport, taxis, buses and airport staff.[86] Melbourne Airport has five car parks, all of which operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The short term, multi-level long term, business and express carparks are undercover, while the long term parking is not.[87] The main multi-level carpark in front of the terminal was built in the late 1990s, replacing the ground level car parking.[88] It has been progressively expanded ever since. Public transportThe Skybus Super Shuttle service is the main public transport link to the airport, taking approximately 20 minutes to reach Southern Cross Station in the Melbourne central business district. From Southern Cross, travellers can access V/Line regional and Connex Melbourne suburban trains, Yarra Trams and interstate train and bus services.[89] Three local bus services under the Metcard fare system service the airport: Route 478 between Moonee Ponds Junction and Melbourne Airport, Route 479 from Moonee Ponds to Sunbury via the airport, and Route 500 between Broadmeadows railway station and Victoria University in Sunbury.[89] There are nine other bus companies serving the airport, with services to Ballarat, Bendigo, Dandenongs, Frankston, Mornington Peninsula, Geelong, Melbourne suburbs, Shepparton and the Riverina.[90] These negate the need to transfer onto V/Line services. A daily return service from the states north—starting in Shepparton, passing through Nagambie, Seymour and Broadford—is operated by Airport Direct.[91] Bendigo Airport Service offers return buses between Bendigo and the airport four times a day. From Geelong, Gull Bus operates approximately every one to two hours.[92] Rail linkA rail link from what was then known as the Broadmeadows (now the Craigieburn Suburban Line) to the airport was mooted in the 1960s, but little progress was made. In 2001, the state government investigated the construction of a heavy rail link to the airport under the Linking Victoria program. Two options were considered, one branching off the Craigieburn Suburban Line to the east, and another branching off the Albion Goods Line, which passes close to the airport's boundary to the south; the second option was preferred.[93] Market research concluded most passengers preferred traveling to the airport by taxi or car, and poor patronage of similar links in Sydney and Brisbane cast doubt on the viability of the project.[94] This led to the project being deferred until at least 2012. On 21 July 2008, the Premier of Victoria reaffirmed the government's commitment to a rail link and said that it would be considered within three to five years.[95] To maximise future development options, the airport is lobbying for the on-grounds section of the railway to be underground.[96][77] TerminalsMelbourne Airport's terminals have 56 gates; 40 domestic and 16 international.[97] There are six dedicated freighter parking positions on the Southern Freighter Apron.[98] The current terminal numbering system was introduced in July 2005; they were previously known as Qantas Domestic, International, and South (formerly Ansett Domestic).[99] Terminal 1Terminal 1 hosts domestic services for Qantas Group airlines, Qantas, Jetstar and QantasLink, and is located to the northern end of the building. Departures are located on the first floor, while arrivals are located on the ground floor. In late 1999, an expanded Qantas terminal was opened, featuring a second pier, a new access roadway, and the expansion of the terminal. The works cost $50 million and took two years to complete.[88] Today a wide range of shops and food outlets are situated at the end of the terminal, near the entrance into Terminal 2. Qantas has a Qantas Club lounge in the terminal.[100][101] Terminal 2Terminal 2 handles all international flights out of Melbourne Airport, with the exception of Jetstar's flight to Singapore, which operates via Darwin. The terminal has 16 gates, although gates 12–16 are 'standoff' (or non-airbridge gates). Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand/United Airlines and Emirates Airline all operate airline lounges in the terminal.[101] A $330 million expansion program for Terminal 2 was announced in 2007. The objectives of this project include new lounges and retail facilities, a new satellite terminal, increased luggage capacity and a redesign of customs and security areas.[102] A new satellite terminal will feature floor-to-ceiling windows that offer views of the North/South runway. The new concourse will include three double-decker aerobridges, each accommodating an A380 aircraft or two smaller aircraft. The baggage handling capacity will be increased and two new baggage carousels will cater for increased A380 traffic. Work commenced in November 2007 and will be completed in stages through to 2012.[103] Although described as a satellite terminal, the terminal building will be connected by an above-ground corridor to Terminal 2. Diagrams of the proposed extension indicate that departures will take place on the lower deck (similar to the A380 boarding lounges currently in use at Gates 9 and 11), with arrivals streamed on to the first floor to connect with the current first floor arrivals deck. Terminal 3Owned by Melbourne Airport, Terminal 3 is home to Virgin Blue, Regional Express and Skywest. The expansion of the terminal was approved in 2000 and completed in 2002 when a second pier was added to the south for use by smaller regional airlines.[104][105] The terminal was used exclusively by Ansett Australia until its collapse in 2001;[106] as a result, Virgin Blue moved in from what was then called Domestic Express (now Terminal 4),[107] and has since began operating The Lounge in the terminal.[101][108] Regional Express also operate an airline lounge in the terminal.[109] Terminal 4Terminal 4—originally called the Domestic Express, or South Terminal—is dedicated to budget airlines and is the first facility of its kind at a conventional airport in Australia. Originally constructed for Virgin Blue and Impulse Airlines, it has also been used by Regional Express. Virgin Blue and Regional Express eventually moved into Terminal 3 following the demise of Ansett.[110] A $5 million refit began in June 2007[111] along the lines of the budget terminal model at Singapore Changi Airport and Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Lower landing and airport handling fees are charged to airlines due to the basic facilities, lack of aerobridges, and fewer amenities and retail outlets compared to a convention terminal. The terminal was rebuilt by Tiger Airways Australia, who have used it as their main hub since they operated their first domestic flight on 23 November 2007.[112] Jetstar Airways confirmed its involvement in discussions with Melbourne Airport regarding the expansion of terminal facilities to accommodate for the growth of domestic low cost services. The proposed expansion of Terminal 4 includes infrastructure accommodating Tiger Airways Australia and Jetstar Airways flights. These plans are currently in development and the expansion of Terminal 4 would include the relocation of the current freight centre. If approved, the development is expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars and take five years to complete.[22] Southern Freighter ApronThe Southern Freighter Apron has five dedicated freighter parking positions, which host 21 dedicated freighter operations a week.[98] In August 1997, the fifth freighter parking position and the apron was extended.[18] Other facilities
The Airport Hilton Hotel
Melbourne Airport is served by three hotels. A Hilton is located 100 metres (330 ft) from Terminal 2, atop the multi level carpark. Work commenced on the six-story 280 room hotel in January 1999, which was completed in mid-2000.[88] Holiday Inn have an outlet located 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the terminal precinct. Motel Formule 1 offers lodgings located 600 metres (2,000 ft) from the terminals.[113] A BP petrol station, Mercedes-Benz dealership and a McDonald's are located on the main entrance road.[114] Melbourne Airport Golf Club is located adjacent to the North/South runway.[115] Airlines and destinationsThe following airlines operate services to Melbourne Airport using their own aircraft. Many others operate services as codeshares.[116]
Accidents and incidentsOn 29 May 2003, Qantas Flight 1737—en route to Launceston Airport—was hijacked shortly after takeoff. The flight attendants and passengers successfully subdued and restrained the hijacker, and the plane turned around and landed safely at Melbourne.[124] On 21 February 2005, a mystery illness caused the evacuation and closure of what was then the South Terminal. The incident began at 7:10 am when a female collapsed in the terminal building. The terminal was closed at 10:10 am because several individuals exhibited symptoms and were hospitalised. In all, 57 individuals were treated by ambulance officers, 47 of whom were hospitalised. All flights landing at the affected terminal were bused to the Patrick Freight facility and unloaded. The South Terminal reopened at 6 pm. The mystery illness was never determined.[125][126] See also
Notes
References
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