Airport News

Cairns Airport’s planned 20-year $1 billion redevelopment has been given the go ahead by the state government, according to reports.

The Australian gateway CEO, Kevin Brown, made the announcement today (March 27) alongside Cairns MPs, Gavin King and Michael Trout.

The “Cairns Airport Land Use Plan” was given approval by the state government to allow the airport to “move forward”, The Cairns Post reported.

The plan allows for a second runway at the airport, although Brown said this would not be required for at least 50 years.

Airport operators such as Skytrans and Hawker Pacific will move to a new airport economic precinct from the western side of the runway to the eastern side, the newspaper said.

Brown said the airport would continue talks with aviation operators to shift to the new site and would call for expressions of interest globally for engineering, training and cargo handling facilities in the new area.

He added: “The Land Use Plan allows us to build on the 30,000 jobs and $2.5 billion of value added revenue the airport currently generates per year for the regional economy.”

He said a second runway would not be built “for the foreseeable future”.