Melbourne Airport’s two-year, $1 billion upgrade has reached the halfway mark.
Chief executive Chris Woodruff told about 700 stakeholders at Melbourne Town Hall last week that the airport’s current investment program was creating more than 3000 jobs and was the largest private infrastructure investment of its kind in the state.
He said major work in the past year included creating a new domestic terminal, a ground transport hub, 21 more plane parking bays, expansion work within the international terminal and major road network upgrades, including to Airport Drive and a new entry to the airport from the Western Ring Road.
Mr Woodruff said both the airport’s passenger and freight numbers had risen. Total passengers grew by 4 per cent in 2013-14 to a total of 31 million. International passenger numbers rose 9 per cent, to 7.75 million, while domestic passengers were up 2 per cent to 23.3 million.
“Asia continued to drive our international growth, with China holding its place as our most important long-haul market,” he said.
“Elsewhere in Asia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan all grew by an extraordinary minimum of 20 per cent.”
While welcoming state government support for a rail link to Melbourne’s CBD and for its widening of the Tullamarine Freeway, Mr Woodruff said both state and federal governments needed to come up with funding for the ‘missing link’ of the Tullamarine Freeway between Melbourne and Essendon airports.
