The Top End is booming as a destination but facilities to deal with the influx are stretched.

A report in the Sydney Morning Herald says that fighting through peak hour at Melbourne or Sydney airport is one thing but there’s another bizarre peak-hour crush that has developed in the tropical north as a result of Australia’s low-cost airline revolution.

It starts about midnight every night when up to 2000 people begin fighting their way into and out of Darwin airport, while as many as six low-cost flights converge on the Top End from Singapore, Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane, and a Qantas Boeing 767 service from Sydney.

The crush will increase from December when Tiger Airways increases its five-times-a-week Singapore-Darwin services to daily, and launches an evening Melbourne-Darwin daily return service, as part of its Australian domestic expansion.

Darwin airport officials admit there is a problem, but it’s a good problem to have, says airport chief executive Ian Kew, with travel to Darwin booming, fuelled by airfares from $179 one-way (half what they used to be in the Ansett-Qantas days) and as low as $89 in the recent sales stoush between Tiger Airways, Jetstar and Virgin Blue.

Last financial year Darwin handled 1.65 million domestic and international passengers, up 13 per cent, with more rapid growth to come.

The low-cost airlines Tiger Airways, Jetstar and Virgin Blue can entice flyers with dirt-cheap fares to Darwin by using planes that would otherwise be parked overnight at home ports.

If you want to arrive in Darwin in daylight, however, fares can be double or triple the cheaper rates, with the only airline that arrives in the airport’s other peak hour, lunchtime, is Qantas.

The terminal resembles a refugee camp at the midnight hour, with dozens of sleeping bodies sprawled on the floor while, outside, arriving passengers struggle, often in vain, to hail a taxi.

With burgeoning oil, gas and mining, defence and government activity soaking up virtually all the city’s unemployed, a shortage of taxi drivers is one of the consequences, although there have been complaints for years from airline passengers unable to get a cab for the 13-kilometre journey into the middle of town.

Some passengers also complain that, because of the timing of the flights, finding a place to stay and hiring cars can be a hassle.

“Many of those arriving are joining a tour or picking up a campervan or a car, all activities that can only be carried out during business hours,” says Brian Macdonald of Watsonia, Victoria, a recent traveller to the Top End. He describes the whole experience as “absolute hell on passengers”.

Demand for accommodation has far outstripped supply and new hotel rooms aren’t expected to be ready until next year – when, among other things, the new Darwin Convention Centre opens.

Kew’s airport team is doing its best to handle the surge in midnight traffic, moving toilets and ticket counters, reconfiguring the baggage collection area and beginning a “minor expansion” of the terminal in a project costing about $10 million.

Outside, it has allocated staff to marshal taxis and hire cars but Kew admits taxi availability is a problem, especially with flights arriving as Darwin’s nightclubs begin emptying.

Report by The Mole