Townsville booms
Media reports in Townsville say that a booming economy and a big increase in aircraft capacity has delivered huge growth in passengers at Townsville Airport.
Townsville Airport owner Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) reported yesterday that a total of 1,330,654 people passed through the airport in 2006 – a whopping 14.7% increase on 2005 of 1,159,581 or about an extra 470 people using the airport every day.
The report says that the results will be music to the ears of local development and hospitality leaders who in 2005 lobbied hard for big increases in airline capacity and secured them when Jetstar came to town in October 2005, increasing seat capacity about 25%
QAL MD Dennis Chant said yesterday the result was excellent for the city and the airport, adding “It’s an indicator of business activity.
Mr Chant said the result compared with a 3.6% increase at its Coolangatta airport on the Gold Coast and a 17.34% increase at its Mount Isa airport where passengers numbers increased from 127,688 to 149,830.
Mr Chant said North Queensland was showing good growth, well above the national average and that people had responded to the extra capacity, particularly with the arrival of Jetstar, and more competitively priced fares, adding, “Also, it would appear to be fairly buoyant economic times, with an increase in mining activity and Townsville avery much a service centre for that and a distribution point for flights to the mines.”
Mr Chant said load factors on aircraft had fallen slightly with the increase in capacity so there was the potential to grow the traffic further, but growth this year would be driven by factors such as activity in the mining sector and other industries, including the defence sector, adding, “We are very much tied to the regional economy”.
In mid-2005, tourism leaders expressed frustration at a continuing stand-off over increasing air capacity into Townsville and there were reports of people having to reach the city from southern capitals via Cairns and Mackay because direct flights from Brisbane were full, particularly during the high winter season.
Local media said that A camera crew from Fox Sports which needed to get to the city to film a Cowboys game had to fly to Mackay and drive to Townsville to get into and out of the city and at the time, Townsville Enterprise CEO Glenys Schuntner said the city was missing out while other regions were reaping the benefits of more low-cost travel and faster growth.
Monthly figures for November and December 2006 showed 14.32% growth to 113,478 and 7.78% growth to 113,558 respectively for Townsville.
Report by The Mole
John Alwyn-Jones
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