Jetstar bid for Tullamarine expansion
A report in The Age says that Melbourne Airport is in discussions with Jetstar to build a multimillion-dollar low-cost carrier terminal at Tullamarine to cope with record demand in the domestic market.
BusinessDay has learned that Melbourne Airport is considering expanding Terminal 4, opened in November last year to accommodate the arrival of Tiger Airways. However, bitter rival Jetstar would not need to share the Tiger’s den, with plans including an adjoining terminal to be built for Qantas’ budget offshoot to process its passengers.
Melbourne Airport ‘s freight operations would also need to be moved from their position next to T4 to make way for Jetstar’s burgeoning operations.
Recent figures from Melbourne Airport show a record 14% growth in passenger numbers flying domestically. If that rate remains then Jetstar will soon outgrow the home its shares with Qantas at Terminal 1. Jetstar has eight domestic aircraft based at Melbourne Airport operating 200 domestic flights a week from Tullamarine. That compares with 84 return flights a week from Avalon.
While the plans are still in development, sources say the total upgrade to Terminal 4 and the freight centre would cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
It forms part of Melbourne Airport ‘s master plan, now the subject of community consultation. That consultation period ends on July 11 and if the upgrade is given the go-ahead it would take an estimated five years before it is completed.
Melbourne Airport spokesman Geoffrey Conaghan said the upgrade would need to be considered alongside the $330 million development of T2, the international terminal.
“We would do the project in an economically responsible way; we would not want to lose our rating from Moody’s,” he said. “Once the consultation period is up we will have a clearer indication of the broad expansion plan. I think it is a signal, though, of the sound state of the Victorian economy that we could even talk about these developments while undertaking such a massive project like the international terminal upgrade.”
Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway said the airline was not interested in T4 “as it currently stands” but nor was it looking at moving into “a Taj Mahal”.
“We will be interested to see what Melbourne Airport comes up with,” he said. “I can confirm with you we have had discussions with Melbourne Airport . We have discussions with a lot of airports about growth. From our perspective, though, in terms of any new terminal infrastructure, we will consider it subject to reasonable commercial terms and subject to a reasonable customer proposition.”
The proposal would also be subject to planning approvals from the Federal Government.
by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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