History
Until 1999, the airport was known as Coolangatta Airport. It originally consisted (1936) of three grass strips with the intention of only providing emergency landing ground for airmail aircraft transiting between Brisbane and Sydney. Finally, passenger flights took off for the first time in 1939, using the then grassy field of the current Coolangatta site. Regular services were started by Queensland Airlines and Butler Air Transport after the Second World War. Ansett started its own services in 1950 using DC-3s, while Trans Australia Airlines did the same in 1954 using DC-3s too as well as DC-4s and Convairs to link other Australian cities.
By 1958, the taxiways and runways were fully paved, with the later being upgraded a decade later to allow jet operations with DC-9 and L-188 Electra aircraft to began. The current terminal, entitled Eric Robinson Building, was officially opened in 1981 by Acting Prime Minister Douglas Anthony, when at the time more than 650,000 passengers were using the airport. The following year, the main runway was lengthened to 2,042 m (6,699 ft), thus permitting the use of wide-body jets by the two domestic operators Ansett Australia and Trans Australia Airlines and their Boeing 767 and Airbus A300 respectively on flights from Melbourne and Sydney.
On 1 January 1988, the airport ownership was transferred from the government to the Federal Airports Corporation. Its full privatisation occurred a decade later, when it was taken over by Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) on 29 May 1998. By 1999, the company's name had changed to become Gold Coast Airport Pty Ltd (GCAPL). The airport suffered from the collapse of Ansett in 2001 – Ansett had operated direct services from the Gold Coast to 12 Australian destinations.
In 2003 GCAPL was taken over by Queensland Airports Limited and today also own and operate Mount Isa Airport and Townsville Airport.
Despite the name change from Coolangatta Airport to Gold Coast Airport during change of ownership, the airport still carries its original IATA Airport Code, OOL.
In 1990, the airport welcomed its first international charter service from New Zealand, and by 1999, Air New Zealand low-cost subsidiary Freedom Air started scheduled no-frills service from Hamilton, New Zealand with Boeing 737s. In 2007, the airport celebrated the arrival of AirAsia X, which began services directly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Tiger Airways Australia, which started services to Melbourne. By January 2008, the Kuala Lumpur route had proved so popular, that all flights up to the month of March were completely booked. AirAsia X announced that they would begin a daily service from 6 February 2010.
On 22 September 2008 it was announced that Air Pacific will expand its services to Australia with the introduction of twice weekly flights between Nadi, Fiji and the Gold Coast commencing December 2008. Air Pacific’s Managing Director and CEO, John Campbell, said "Australia is Fiji's number one source of visitors and with the population growing rapidly in the South East corner of Queensland we know the time is right to introduce this service." The new route commenced on 1 December 2008 with two flights per week operated by 160 seat Boeing 737–800 aircraft on a Monday and Saturday. The service has since been suspended.
By 2009, Jetstar begun flying at least twice daily to Tokyo and Osaka, Japan. Services to New Zealand increased as well with Jetstar, Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue flying to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. Airnorth also started services to the airport from Darwin, via Mount Isa. In addition, Virgin Blue announced direct services from Canberra and Townsville. This opens up connections between all three QAL owned airports – Mount Isa Airport, Townsville Airport and Gold Coast Airport.
2010 saw Jetstar announce the airport as its newest hub, increased services to Cairns and new direct services to Perth and Queenstown. Tiger Airways also announced their newest base at Avalon Airport in Geelong, and said that services from Avalon to the Gold Coast will commence later in the year; however, services to Adelaide would be cut due to delays in receiving new aircraft which were meant to be for their new Avalon base.
On 13 June 2010, start up airline Pacific Flier began weekly services from Koror, Palau, using an Airbus A310. The route has since been suspended due to traffic rights and terminal access being halted in Palau.
On 26 October 2010, Gold Coast Airport was named the 2010 Major Airport of the Year 2010 by the Australian Airports Association (AAA).
On 16 November 2010, Jetstar announced new daily direct services to Hobart.
On 30 March 2011, Gold Coast Airport was named the Best Regional Airport Asia/Pacific and was awarded the Staff Service Excellence Australia/Pacific award at the Skytrax World Airport Awards in Copenhagen, Denmark.
On June 12 Scoot Commenced services to Singapore.
On August 13 Qantas announced that it will return to Gold Coast, flying from Sydney three times daily using a Boeing 737-800.
On September 28 Qantas Commenced services to Sydney.
Read more about this topic: Gold Coast Airport
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