Best Airport in Australia

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browski

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I am in a position where I can now work from home. This turn of events has lead me to consider where, in an ideal world, would be the best aussie Domestic/Int'l airport to live within 90 minutes drive time.

Perth?
Melbourne?
Darwin?
Sydney?
Cairns?

Sorry, Adelaide does not count as an Int'l airport and Hobart is not really part of Australia.

So my question is "Which airport in the country is the best to use as your primary departure/arrival point.

Possible Criteria: Airport Costs(Taxes/Parking/Taxi time & cost to city); Connections, Length of check-in lines (even in Business), Airline Lounge Facilities. Just for the sake of the exercise we are not comparing living on the beach at Noosa compared to living in a trailer park in Avalon - just comparing the airports.

My gut feeling is that domestically, Sunshine Coast is the best and internationally, Brisbane is the pick of the bunch.

Would anybody choose other options?
Am I alone in thinking that Sydney Int'l would rate way down on the list?
Would anybody objectively pick Melb Tulla over Brisbane Int'l?
 
It all depends on where you want/need to fly to/from. Sunshine coast is going to a pain for domestic flights due to low flight volumes and poor non-stop destination selection.

For international, it depends on where you travel. If USA, then best options will be MEL or SYD. BNE will be dropping to only 5 weekly non-stop flights to LAX and the connection through AKL goes to about 4 hours. Also note only one daily option to SIN and 4 times weekly to HKG. So SYD remains the most convenient for most international destinations.

BNE is good for domestic and has non-stop to most places except Tassie and regional centres.

PER is too far from other domestic destinations (except Broome or Kalgoorlie) for me to consider based on your criteria.

I really don't see much difference in the lounges between capital city airports, at least not enough to make any difference to where I chose to live.
 
As an airport for International, CNS fails in not having a First Class lounge

For a straight O/D situation I don't see that there's much in it between , say, SYD,MEL,BNE and PER. Not been to Darwin so can't comment there

If connecting to/from a domestic flight then MEL is the best of the bunch given the proximity of the 2 terminals, SYD comes second with its airside bus ride, BNE comes 3rd with the train and PER being the bottom of the pile with the scenic coach tour of Western Australia

Dave
 
browski said:
Sorry, Adelaide does not count as an Int'l airport and Hobart is not really part of Australia.

How come Adelaide doesn't count as an international airport and Darwin does? Has more international flights & airlines (MH, SQ, CX, QF, NZ, GA, AD, and probably not too long before EK starts services there) than Darwin (QF, BI, TL, AO & GA).
 
dajop said:
browski said:
Sorry, Adelaide does not count as an Int'l airport and Hobart is not really part of Australia.

How come Adelaide doesn't count as an international airport and Darwin does? Has more international flights & airlines (MH, SQ, CX, QF, NZ, GA, AD, and probably not too long before EK starts services there) than Darwin (QF, BI, TL, AO & GA).

As the gag on Hobart and Adelaide were in the same sentence, I thought that most people knew I was just teasing.

By the way, Darwin is on the way to places Adelaide is on the Road to nowhere.
 
Perhaps I am biased because I live there, but I think SYD would be the best. It offers the best connections to just about everywhere. BNE and MEL are approx 1hr, ADL not much more. There are more international flights to more locations.

Where I live is perfect for airport access (Caringbah, in the south, next to Cronulla). Drive time to the airport can be as low as 15 mins outside of peak hour. There are good car-park choices with low cost options and being close-ish means that a cab fare is not too much either if I want to kick-back on the return flight and enjoy a few beers or some wine (e.g. returning from PER).
 
dajop said:
browski said:
Sorry, Adelaide does not count as an Int'l airport and Hobart is not really part of Australia.

How come Adelaide doesn't count as an international airport and Darwin does? Has more international flights & airlines (MH, SQ, CX, QF, NZ, GA, AD, and probably not too long before EK starts services there) than Darwin (QF, BI, TL, AO & GA).

TR?
 
browski said:
As the gag on Hobart and Adelaide were in the same sentence, I thought that most people knew I was just teasing.

Apologies - now a friendly :D or two would have made it obvious! I've spent most of today with people from a particular country that spans between the Pacific & the Atlantic (not the one starting with C), so the sense of humor must be wearing off.....

Now, back to your original post a colleague of mine thoroughly recommends the "Narrabri International Airport", free parking, less than 30 seconds from the closing the car door to entering the terminal, short check in queues, no security queues, free bubbler water, staff that greet you by name, ... what more could you want? Oh, you want to have a decent schedule as well....
 
Sydney gets my vote, although Melbourne is starting to grow on me.

I think the MEL Intl business/QC lounge has the best QC food in Australia.

Something I have never understood is why BNE has a F lounge? No F flights leave from BNE.
 
odoherty said:
Something I have never understood is why BNE has a F lounge? No F flights leave from BNE.
Well it used to have some F flights a while back. Now it is really a OneWorld Emerald Lounge. Probably easier to leave it that way than to knock down the wall and move the kitchen which is located between the J and F lounges.
 
Yep, Melbourne is probably my "favourite". Mainly due to it's setup. A very handy airport especially when transfers are involved.

Sydney does come second, but I use that a lot more than Mel.

I don't like international flights from Brisbane. Much prefer to head through Sydney.
 
I would have to say Sydney for both International & domestic. With the not so new now M5 tunnel a taxi only costs $20 and around 15-20 minutes maximum and that is including peak hour. Has direct flights to most destinations.

Both international and domestic in Brisbane are also quite good.

Melbourne does nothing for me. Cairns international is pretty ordinary. I will try Adelaide, Perth very soon and hopefully Darwin in transit to Singapore on an award flight.
 
odoherty said:
is why BNE has a F lounge? No F flights leave from BNE.

Are there any non QF flights with a First Class cabin which use the QF lounge? That would be a good reason to maintain it

Dave
 
For airport facilities - I'd pick MEL. Great lounges and unlike SYD, BNE and PER very easy to go between the terminals. Also lots of international connections (via SYD if necessary).

For ease & cost of getting to the airport - CNS, but airport facilities (both dom and int) are fairly poor and limited flights.
 
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NM said:
odoherty said:
Something I have never understood is why BNE has a F lounge? No F flights leave from BNE.
Well it used to have some F flights a while back. Now it is really a OneWorld Emerald Lounge. Probably easier to leave it that way than to knock down the wall and move the kitchen which is located between the J and F lounges.

Does CX have F ex-BNE?

AKL F lounge is similarly really an OW Emerald Lounge - the only OW F ex-AKL is LA SCL-AKL-SYD-AKL-SCL but its so few pax as not worth a lounge for.
 
I would look at a number of factors:

1. Distance from city and home
2. Travel options to airport, cost and time needed
3. Terminals adjacent or separate facilities (and distance/ease of transfer)
4. Facilities (C&I size, QP, F Lounge)

As the majority of business is done from the 3 seaboard cities, living in ADL or PER can hamstring your time and connection options.

SYD is a moderate distance from city and excellent travel options (taxi, buses, trains) but it fails in 3. I hate the transfer via bus and go out of my way to avoid having to transfer in SYD. Facilities are good as you would expect.

MEL falls down in the distance and travel options (no trains), but excels in point 3 and 4. This woudl be my pick if they only fixed up points 1 and 2 (plus better weather :( )

BNE (I have a conflict of interest here) is a smilar distance to the airport as SYD as well as travel options (no public transport buses only private charter, but train and taxi's). Transferring in BNE is only slightly better than SYD (distance and no cost if my train, but don't make the taxi drivers happy). BNE quite rightly has no First flights (unless a 3-class gets substituted for a 2-class plane :p ), so it really is a OW Emerald lounge adn yes, it's small i comparison to SYD and MEL F lounges.
 
Lindsay Wilson said:
1. Distance from city and home
2. Travel options to airport, cost and time needed
3. Terminals adjacent or separate facilities (and distance/ease of transfer)
4. Facilities (C&I size, QP, F Lounge)

SYD is a moderate distance from city and excellent travel options (taxi, buses, trains) but it fails in 3. I hate the transfer via bus and go out of my way to avoid having to transfer in SYD.

Hi Lindsay,

I guess it depends upon your flying patterns, but for me number 3 is not an issue because living in Sydney means that I do not transit there. If I fly into SYD T1, next stop is home in the car. If I am flying out of T1, I have come from home or the office. For T2/T3, same applies.

- Peter
 
My flights are nearly all towards asia/middle east so BNE has been wonderful for flights to those parts. I agree that trans pacific there are less options.

As Melb is the likely relocation point, I am thrilled that Melb Int'l in rated so highly - especially as to my surprise, I recently discovered that Melb was actually closer to Singapore than was Brisbane - who would have thought!
 
Sydney is perfect except that it is in Sydney :( , YUK!!! OK to visit but not for living in.

Brisbane is a good compromise, (although it needs Daylight saving) and the good thing about it is that it is in Brisbane. :D At least this way when I do happen to be home it is a nice city to live in with a great climate, and I seem to be able to make most international conncetions I want, though admit to going via Sydney at times to get a more convenient flight. Given most of my OS trips are over 24hrs travel time a 1.5 flight to SYD is nothing and is often recovered in reduced transfers along the way. I love the A330 link to Singapore.

Melbourne is OK but is too cold.
 
Yada Yada, indeed the transfer option is a moot point for your local airport. I believe MEL has better transfer facilities adn would rate it higher than SYD. It all depends where you are flying to, and whether direct flights can be found from your city. SYD and MEL have more flights than BNE, so for me, transferring is a necessity. I'll fly to MEL (for the extra SC and points :wink: ) as the time taken in extra flying time is equalled by the shorter transfer time in MEL (over the Intl/Dom bus or train transfer in SYD).
 
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