Airport Is Flying High

Newcastle Herald

Thursday June 26, 2008

Other airfields in the Hunter include Royal Newcastle

Aero Club at Russell Field, Rutherford, which provides

aircraft hire, flying training, aerobatics and skydiving,

Cessnock, Scone, Singleton, and even a small grass airstrip

at Luskintyre where a small group restores Tiger Moths.

Luskintyre has five hangars with 12 Tiger Moths in fl ying

condition and another 15-18 under restoration, plus a small

aviation museum, and on the fi rst Saturday of each month

it hosts Lunch With The Tiger Moths with its aircraft on

display.

With its proximity to the vineyards, use of Cessnock

Airport is booming. There are about 75,000 movements a

year into Cessnock, which is home to Hunter Valley Aviation,

a centre for aviation and pilot training, aircraft hire and

scenic fl ights; Hunter Recreational Flying Club, which has

eight hangars and a clubhouse and about 50 members?

aircraft, mostly untralights and home-builds; Just Jump Sky

Dive; Avondale College of Aviation; Hunter Wine Helicopters;

Hunter Valley Ballooning and Hunter Valley Vintage

Aviation. Sydney Seaplanes has also started fl ying into

Cessnock from Rose Bay, and a hangar is being completed

to house Air Action Flying Warbirds Museum, where all the

war planes will be available for joy fl ights.

NEWCASTLE Airport celebrated its 60th anniversary

of commercial aviation this year, but had a

premature party at the end of last year when, for

the fi rst time, 1 million passengers passed through the

airport in a calendar year.

The milestone, reached just days before the year ended,

topped off a year of amazing growth at the airport, which

saw the opening of the Jetstar A320 maintenance hangar,

the reintroduction of international fl ights to Norfolk Island

with the Norfolk Air Service and the start of work on a $10

million tarmac upgrade that was completed and offi cially

opened in April this year.

The tarmac expansion doubled the airport?s capacity

to handle jet aircraft on the ground at any one time to fi ve

? such planes as used by Jetstar (which is increasing its

services through the airport by 50 per cent), Virgin Blue and

Tiger Airways ? and provides the airport the chance to handle

larger international aircraft such as Boeing 787s.

The 1 million passengers achievement was remarkable

for the airport, as just fi ve years previously it handled only

about 214,000 passengers.

A major upgrade in 2005, which doubled the terminal

fl oor area, introduced a retail precinct (which added

outlets of Insomnia Coffee, Hungry Jacks, Runway News

and a Sports Bar and Bistro), doubled the departures

and arrivals areas, provided additional offi ce suites and

upgraded the car parking and road systems, made room

for the additional passengers. It is predicted that this year

the airport will accommodate 1.3 million passengers as the

result of the increased fl ights by Jetstar.

Tiger Airways, an Asia Pacifi c low-fare airline that took

to the skies from Singapore in 2004, began operations from

Newcastle in January and runs a return fl ight daily between

Newcastle and Melbourne, but it will be suspended from

August.

Plans for the airport this year include the implementation

of a checked bag screening system to ensure every bag at

the airport is screened, consolidation of fuel storage at a

new location, ongoing maintenance and general upgrades.

Newly introduced at the terminal are Newcastle Airport

Ambassadors, volunteers who meet and greet passengers,

provide assistance, answer tourism and transport queries

and provide directions.

Newcastle is currently one of Australia?s fastest-growing

airports and is operated by Newcastle Airport Limited, a

company set up by Newcastle and Port Stephens councils

in 1993, which jointly took over running of the facility from

the Federal Government in 1990.

Newcastle?s 60th anniversary this year was on February

20, the day in 1948 when the fi rst commercial fl ight at what

was then Williamtown Civilian Airport landed, a Trans

Australian Airline DC-3 on the Sydney-Williamtown-Brisbane

service.

YOU CAN GET THERE FROM HERE:

? Newcastle Airport handles commercial fl ights

from airlines including Aeropelican, Brindabella,

Jetstar, Norfolk Air, QantasLink, Tiger

Airways (until August) and Virgin Blue.

? From Newcastle passengers can fl y to

Brisbane (45 departures a week), Canberra

(21 departures), Melbourne (35 departures),

Gold Coast (13 departures), Coffs Harbour

(six departures), Sydney (47 departures),

Inverell (six departures), Norfolk Island (one

departure), Port Macquarie (six departures)

and Tamworth (eight departures).

? At present QantasLink has suspended its

Newcastle-Sydney, Newcastle-Melbourne

and Newcastle-Brisbane services, but they

are expected to resume next month. The

suspension is due to a higher than normal

pilot attrition rate and the training of pilots on

the new Dash 8 Q400 aircraft. Passengers are

still serviced on the routes by Jetstar, Virgin

Blue, Tiger Airways and Aeropelican.

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home