Qld: Tourism plunge sets back Brisbane airport expansion
13 Apr 2009 5:20 PM
BRISBANE, April 13 AAP - More than $1.7 billion worth of construction at Brisbane airport has been deferred due to a fall in tourist numbers.
Work on a $700 million domestic terminal expansion and a $1 billion parallel runway were due for completion by 2015 but are likely to be pushed back by several years.
Brisbane Airports Corporation (BAC) spokesman Jim Carden said the airport had experienced years of 17 per cent growth in visitor numbers, but arrivals had fallen to almost zero growth.
"There's been a softening of the market since, probably, two-thirds of the way through last year," Mr Carden said.
"The airlines are doing it hard and obviously passenger numbers are not great."
He said the BAC held development approvals and conditional financing.
"Whether we're going to do it is not an issue - it's going to happen, but what the last six months or so have shown is, there's been a softening of passenger numbers and as a result the demand, as in the need for new gates, new aerobridges, new runways, et cetera, gets pushed out proportionately.
"It'll be built when it's needed, but at the moment the market is saying it isn't," Mr Carden said.
Mr Carden said the delay would likely mean the domestic terminal expansion would be completed in 2014 instead of 2012.
The new parallel runway could be put back from a completion date of 2015 to 2018, depending on demand.
