3 months ago
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International flights, including a Jetstar service to Bali, will return to Avalon Airport six years after the terminal was closed by COVID-19.
The Victorian government will also fund a new bus route from Lara station to the airport north of Geelong for thousands of airport workers and travellers, and provide a “very small” undisclosed financial contribution towards expanding capacity at Avalon.
AirAsia previously flew to Kuala Lumpur from Avalon Airport twice a day before international flights were grounded by the pandemic in March 2020.
Avalon Airport chief executive Ari Suss hopes other international airlines will fly out of Avalon.Credit: Eddie Jim
The airport’s chief executive, Ari Suss, said he hoped this would encourage other airlines to make use of the terminal after enduring the pandemic.
“It’s taken some time for the industry to recover,” Suss said.
Jetstar will start with five return flights to Denpasar, Bali, each week from March 23. The carrier is also restarting flights between Avalon and Adelaide, and increasing services to Brisbane.
Avalon will spend at least $31 million on infrastructure to accommodate the expanded routes.
Suss said the Victorian government would make a “very small” contribution towards this construction.
“It’s a fraction of the overall investment,” he said.
The Age asked the Victorian government how much it would invest but did not receive a direct response by deadline on Sunday before the formal announcement on Monday.
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“Now arriving: more flights for Avalon and more jobs for Geelong,” Premier Jacinta Allan said in a statement.
Suss expected the return of international flights to add between 80 and 100 jobs, on top of contractors working on the expansion.
More than 2500 workers already commute to the broader precinct, where Avalon Airport has developed warehouse and distribution centres.
The new route 18 bus, to start in coming months, will stop at the industrial precinct as well as the airport terminals.
Wyndham and the broader outer south-western suburbs, where workers face longer-than-average commutes, are growing rapidly.
“I think one thing we’ve seen, particularly over the last few years, is really an acceleration of population growth in the Melbourne-Geelong corridor,” Suss said.
“I think now we’re getting to that tipping point of scale and size where the demand is there.”
Former treasurer Tim Pallas momentarily threatened to move plans for an airport rail link from Tullamarine to Avalon if a dispute over the station couldn’t be resolved. Tullamarine’s private operators last year settled on an above-ground station, with the owners, state and federal governments since agreeing to push ahead.
Suss conceded a rail connection to Avalon Airport wasn’t justified at the moment.
“But we’re only three kilometres directly between the Melbourne-Geelong rail line and Avalon itself, separated mostly by farmland. So it’s a very easy opportunity to provide connectivity.”
He hopes to one day emulate London’s Luton Airport, which has a light rail connection to a nearby train station.
“That’s something that Avalon can look to pursue in the years to come. Our view at the moment is [to] make it easier, more accessible for the community by providing that initial connection with bus connectivity, and then we’ll see what the future holds.”
Jetstar chief executive Stephanie Tully said the new routes would give Victorians more options.
“This investment will see thousands more customers fly through Melbourne’s second airport
gateway, supporting the economic growth of Melbourne, Geelong, the Surf Coast and the
Bellarine Peninsula.”
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