Hobart to become an international airport (again) in Jan 2021

[jakeseven7]

Has been rumoured for a while and a joke for many many years that HBA kept its international name but no flights..... but Scott Morrison is today in Hobart and will announce that Hobart will be set up as an International Airport (again).

Flights will commence from Jan 2021, with New Zealand.

Big couple weeks for Tassie with 5 new domestic routes from Qantas opening up as well.

——

International flights to resume with direct flights from Hobart to New Zealand launching

No Cookies | The Mercury

No Cookies

www.themercury.com.au

 

[jakeseven7]

Suspect it will be a JQ or NZ route (feels like will be a LCC skewing service)

And more info here:

International flights bound for Hobart for the first time in two decades

There could be 130 direct flights a year between Tasmania and New Zealand as early as next year, more than two decades since the last service took to the skies, with Tasmania also agreeing to an additional 450 hotel quarantine beds for Australians returning home from abroad.

www.abc.net.au

 

[kelvedon]

Are the flights to Casey Station in Antartica still going.? Are these are technically intentional flights too ?

Passenger flight information – Australian Antarctic Program

www.antarctica.gov.au

 

[RooFlyer]

Are the flights to Casey Station in Antartica still going.? Are these are technically intentional flights too ?

Yes and yes. A couple are due to leave in the next week. These flights and to other countries' bases are why HBA justified it's 'international' status after HBA-DUN was canned

 

[jakeseven7]

So what do we think will be the first route and airline operating?

HBA - AKL or CHC?

NZ or JQ?

And will the government subsidise it somehow?

 

[Captain Halliday]

@RooFlyer since it’s your local, any chance you could do a review on the HBA F lounge?

 

[Mattg]

Yes and yes. A couple are due to leave in the next week. These flights and to other countries' bases are why HBA justified it's 'international' status after HBA-DUN was canned

I never knew there was a direct flight from Hobart to Dehraduh, India. Unless you mean DUD?

 

[RooFlyer]

So what do we think will be the first route and airline operating?

HBA - AKL or CHC?

NZ or JQ?

And will the government subsidise it somehow?

The news report above says AKL, which I'm a bit disappointed at. Would have preferred CHC.

Feds had previously pledged the money for border force & Fed police and State govt paying $10 mill or so for terminal upgrade to handle international. Nothing AFAIA for the airlines, although announcement said that the service will operate for a year. Hard to say that unless someone is underwriting the service.

Re airport upgrade, remember that HBA was half way through its 'masterplan' re-jig until abt 12-18 months ago they realised that they had under estimated demand, so they stopped it to re-do their master plan . So its still a bit of a half-ar*sed effort.

@RooFlyer since it’s your local, any chance you could do a review on the HBA F lounge?

Sure, no probs. The last Lounge upgrade I reviewed was when the QP got a sandwich maker, with great fanfare from QF.

 

[DC3]

Be interesting to see if NZ to Tassie is a viable route for any airline. May be of some interest to Ozzies wanting to holiday in NZ though.

 

[RooFlyer]

On news tonight, route will be government subsidised to one carrier, under negotiation.

 

[OZDUCK]

On news tonight, route will be government subsidised to one carrier, under negotiation.

Interesting, but why will Hobart air services be subsidised and, apparently anyway, not Darwin, Adelaide, Newcastle etc? Was it an election promise that I missed?

Edit: Ok I see something about the "Hobart City Deal", something I haven't heard about before and will try and look-up.

 

[RooFlyer]

I'm not sure of the details of the subsidy, but the introduction of international services to HBA was part of the Hobart 'City Deal' of the Feds (City Deals are negotiated for/by a number of cities around Australia) .

Hobart city deal

www.infrastructure.gov.au

I thought the airport thing was just the supply of Federal Police and Border Force to the airport, but it may now be including the flight subsidy.

Or I may have misunderstood what was on the news

 

[OZDUCK]

I'm not sure of the details of the subsidy, but the introduction of international services to HBA was part of the Hobart 'City Deal' of the Feds (City Deals are negotiated for/by a number of cities around Australia) .

Hobart city deal

www.infrastructure.gov.au

I thought the airport thing was just the supply of Federal Police and Border Force to the airport, but it may now be including the flight subsidy.

Or I may have misunderstood what was on the news

After I read about the existence of a "Hobart City Deal" on the ABC I did find its home page and an FAQ page. My reading of it was exactly the same as you - a promise to provide Border Force and Federal Police staffing but no mention of subsidised flights. In fact the site says "Any further work to provide border services is reliant on Hobart Airport securing an international carrier to operate international flights, with commercial negotiations currently underway. "

 

[Stealthflyer]

I'm not sure of the details of the subsidy, but the introduction of international services to HBA was part of the Hobart 'City Deal' of the Feds (City Deals are negotiated for/by a number of cities around Australia) .

Hobart city deal

www.infrastructure.gov.au

I thought the airport thing was just the supply of Federal Police and Border Force to the airport, but it may now be including the flight subsidy.

Or I may have misunderstood what was on the news

I too thought the city deal included returning the Federal Police to the airport and assisting with customs etc. Tonight’s news suggested that the state government hadn’t yet secured the return of the federal police. I think the term used was “hoping”.

 

[jakeseven7]

Well looks like we are all wrong (kinda)

Qantas will being operating international repatriation flights into HBA from destinations TBC!

Tasmania to take hundreds of stranded Australians

Tasmania has committed to taking hundreds of stranded Australians wanting to return home by opening up Hobart hotels for quarantine spaces.

www.watoday.com.au

 

[RooFlyer]

Well looks like we are all wrong (kinda)

Qantas will being operating international repatriation flights into HBA from destinations TBC!

Tasmania to take hundreds of stranded Australians

Tasmania has committed to taking hundreds of stranded Australians wanting to return home by opening up Hobart hotels for quarantine spaces.

www.watoday.com.au

That's separate. Announced by the PM on the same trip, but the repatriations will happen before Christmas while the Trans-Tasman trips will be in 2021.

 

[MooTime]

Hobart as part of their multi-year masterplan upgraded the length of their runway for larger aircraft few years ago.
I was part of the design engineering process.

Even though they shelved their inter flights some years ago for various reasons, they always had plans to restart them asap so point of changing airport title to domestic wasn't a real consideration. Obviously took lot loner than anticipated.
Good on them for finally looking like they'll enter that market again.

Beautiful place Tasi to travel around, so bloody clean.

 

[jakeseven7]

That's separate. Announced by the PM on the same trip, but the repatriations will happen before Christmas while the Trans-Tasman trips will be in 2021.

Don't be a sore loser Jokes

Hobart as part of their multi-year masterplan upgraded the length of their runway for larger aircraft few years ago.
I was part of the design engineering process.

Can HBA take a 787? Expecting that is what QF will be using in the repatriation flights.

 

[Nank]

Can HBA take a 787? Expecting that is what QF will be using in the repatriation flights.

From what I know HBA has often been used for various training flights including the old 747 crews, so yes one would suspect that with a 2.7km long runway it could handle a 78. I think the main question is could it handle a fully loaded one (likely yes as they and 77Ws often operate out of 27 at MEL which is only 2.3km long), and is there enough parking and terminal space to handle an aircraft of that size plus other domestic aircraft on a regular basis.
Will definitely be interesting to see how this pans out, though I don't envision HBA attracting enough tourism interest to justify wide body airliners anytime soon, aside from perhaps seasonal services from Asia like CNS had, though even they ended up getting pulled as it wasn't worth the expense. Depending on where the HBA repatriation flights are coming from they may even end up being operated by 73s or 330s

 

[RooFlyer]

Re B787, as jamesimo24 said, the answer is yes. From the HBA web site:

The increased length of the runway will considerably expand the destinations that can be reached by wide-bodied aircraft, particularly the more modern aircraft such as the B777-300 and B787-900 providing opportunities for the state, and Australia more broadly, in three key areas:

The market that was hoped to be developed with the (Federally funded) runway extension was either charters or scheduled flights out of China.

IIRC, Qantas ran an Antarctic scenic flight out of HBA last year ... but ooops ... the B747 had to depart from MEL, as with the fuel load, HBA was too short. It landed back at HBA though.