Townsville International Airport

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Virgin Blue Boeing 737 at Townsville after arriving from Brisbane

Jetstar Boeing 717 at Townsville Airport, Inaugural Jetstar flight to Townsville

Townsville International Airport (IATA: TSV, ICAO: YBTL) is a major Australian regional airport that services the cities of Townsville and Thuringowa, Queensland. The airport is somtimes still called by its original name, Garbutt Airport, after the Townsville suburb of Garbutt where it is located. Townsville International Airport is serviced by major Australian domestic and regional airlines, and in 2005/06 handled over 1,233,143 passengers.

Townsville International Airport, was the first airport in Queensland other than Brisbane Airport to be granted international airport status, but since 2002, Townsville International Airport has no longer handled direct international flights. However, Pacific Blue Airlines offers connecting flights to Christchurch (New Zealand), Nadi (Fiji) and Port Vila (Vanuatu) off its Virgin Blue counterpart flights to Brisbane and Sydney, which the airport does classify as international flights.

The last actual international flight was operated by Qantas in 2002, between Townsville and Singapore via Brisbane using a Boeing 767. Townsville International Airport was closed for two days in March 2006 due to Severe Tropical Cyclone Larry.

[edit] Airlines & Destinations

• Qantas (Brisbane)
  • QantasLink (Cairns, Mackay)
  • Jetstar Airways (Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne)
• Virgin Blue (Brisbane, Sydney)
• Alliance Airlines (Century Mine, Cloncurry, Phosphate Hill Mine)
• Macair Airlines (Mount Isa, Cloncurry, Hughenden, Winton, Moranbah)
• Skytrans Airlines (Cairns)

[edit] History of the Airport

Garbutt Airport (now known as Townsville International Airport) was opened in 1939, after relocating from an old airfield which was located in the southern Townsville suburb of Annandale, This airfield was subject to frequent flooding due to climatic conditions in the region (i.e cyclones, thunderstorms, and wind to name a few) and being built on and near wetlands. So Garbutt Airport was built, ironically also on wetlands but not subject to as much flooding as the old airport (which is now a sports reserve and housing estate). In 1939, the year World War II was declared, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also decided to set up a base at Garbutt Airport, and the United States Air Force (USAF) also used the Airport as a major base for battles in the South Sea, thus making Garbutt Airport one of the largest airports in the Southern Hemisphere during the war.

Townsville Airport saw an increasing number of passengers and Aircraft movements since WWII, with many flights operated by Qantas, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA), Australian National Airways (ANA) and Ansett Australia (Ansett), with flights to Brisbane, though it wasn't until the mid 1960s when the airport really took off. TAA and Ansett - ANA, were receiving numerous jet Aircraft, namely Boeing 727's and DC-9s, and Townsville was a mini hub for both Airlines during the 1970s.

In April 1980, Sir Rupert Murdoch and Sir Peter Abeles, the new owners of Ansett were requesting for international flights to begin in some regional centres of Australia and on 18 April 1980, the inaugural Townsville-Singapore flight began, operated by Ansett, one of the first international flights Ansett had ever operated. In the same year, Townsville Airport was given $13m by the government-owned operator, Federal Airports Limited, to construct and build a new state-of-the-art international terminal, and in 1981, it was opened with the arrival of a Qantas Boeing 747.

Destinations included were Singapore, Auckland, Tokyo, Hong Kong and even Honolulu, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, This was of course at a time where there was a huge tourism demand between the United States and Australia as today this is an unrealistic service for many regional east coast airports, making Townsville the first regional Australian airport to offer direct long-distance international flights. Airlines included, Qantas, Ansett, Continental Micronesia, Garuda Indonesia, Air New Zealand, Cathay Pacific and Japan Airlines (JAL) at one stage.

The airport received another expansion in 1987 when a new domestic expansion of the international terminal opened. In 1989, the Australian aviation industry was in a crisis with the pilots dispute ceasing nearly all domestic flights in the country. Some international flights continued but in 1991 most domestic services returned but a new crisis was beginning for Townsville International Airport.

With the increasing amount of passengers on each international flight into the country, but less flights, there was increasing rivalry between Townsville and Cairns over international flights. In 1991, Cairns International Airport also receiving a boom in international flights since the 1980s, hit hard with a major proposal of a separate international terminal which was able to accommodate a lot more passengers at a single time than Townsville's terminal and Cairns's original terminal, and airlines found that as an opportunity to only have the one hub in Northern Queensland instead of 2 hubs, and thus there was an increasing demand for tourism in Cairns than Townsville. So in 1993 when Cairns' new terminal opened, all the airlines, except Qantas, Ansett, Cathay Pacific and Garuda, stopped international flights to Townsville, but eventually in 1995, the remaining airlines ceased international flights to Townsville.

Townsville's International Aerobridge and gate. It was opened in 1981, and lately hasn't been used much at all

In the mid 1990s domestic flights started to decrease as well, with some services being cut back by Qantas and Ansett, and the aircraft in use on the route to Sydney was progressively being phased out that year by Qantas. Services also received a giant drop when Ansett was into voluntary liquidation in late 2001. Around 40% of Townsville's flights and capacity to Brisbane were cut because of Ansett's troubles. But that same year was also the start of a new era in domestic travel for Townsville International Airport: in February 2001, Virgin Blue made Townsville its first regional destination, and passenger figures rose by 25% that year. Then in June, Qantas announced that the airline would resume international services to Singapore in September. In August, Qantas announced that it would resume Townsville-Sydney services using Boeing 717 aircraft acquired when Qantas bought out Impulse Airlines. When Ansett collapsed, Qantas and Virgin helped fill the gap that Ansett left.

In August 2002, Qantas cut the services to Singapore, due to lack of demand, It was also the first time since 1994 that a Boeing 747 was used on regular service to Townsville. Virgin and Qantas and a new airline, Alliance Airlines were increasing flights to Townsville bringing more passengers to the city and increasing domestic tourism to Townsville. Also that year, Australian Airports Ltd announced that Townsville domestic terminal would receive a State-of-the-art upgrade and the new redevelopment would open in October 2003.

See Redevelopment in Terminal and Facilities Chapter

The redevelopment eventually opened in December 2003, around 2 months later than planned, as it was originally planned to be opened in October 2003 before the 3 Rugby World Cup matches Townsville hosted. The first arrival was Qantas 737 from Brisbane which usually arrives 10pm and overnights and departs around 6am the next moring, thus making it also the first departure from the new concourse.

[edit] Terminals and Facilities

Inside the Departures/Arrivals lounge at Townsville International Airport

Townsville International Airport has an integrated terminal building, with the southern part of the building, the international terminal, and the northern part, the domestic terminal. The terminal has four aerobridges, with the international aerobridge installed in 1981 and the three domestic aerobridges installed in 2003. The current terminal opened in two stages, the first stage opened 1981 as the international terminal, and the second in 1987 as the domestic terminal, and in 2003, a redevelopment of the domestic side was opened.

[edit] Redevelopment

In October 2002, redevelopment started on the domestic terminal. It was officially opened on the 12 December 2003. The Rrdevelopment was part of a modernisation program for the airport.

It included a new common user departures and arrivals lounge, new modern check-in facilities for Qantas and QantasLink, a new Qantas Club within the new departures lounge, two retail stores, a new mezzanine level, and three aerobridges for aircraft up to the size of Boeing 767 aircraft.

On the 13 December 2003, an "Open Day" was held for Twin Cities residents to have a look at the new look airport. And later that evening, a Qantas flight from Brisbane became the first arrival since the new departures/arrivals lounge was opened, and it also became the first departure at 6:05 am (AEST) 14 December 2003, back to Brisbane.

There is currently another upgrade project underway, so far, the check-in desks of the current airlines have been upgraded, with an extra two desks for Virgin Blue. Two of the four entrances into the terminal are currently under some redevelopment, as well as a new sports bar, and three food outlets due to be completed. Complementing the cafe, and newsagency already in the terminal.

[edit] Future

Jetstar started services on 30 October 2005, these services appear to be receiving huge amount of demand and may pave the way for more flights to the airport in the future.

Singapore Airlines' offshoot carrier Tiger Airways has annouced that Services to Townsville from Darwin is 'on the radar' and if initiated, fares could be as low as $60 (AUD). The service is planned to complement Tiger's existing Darwin - Singapore route. .^[1]

[edit] See also

• List of airports in Australia
• Townsville
• Queensland Airports Corporation
• City of Thuringowa

[edit] External links

• Townsville Airport
• Queensland Airports Townsville.
• World Aero Data airport information for YBTL