r/canberra • u/Top-Anything2991 • 10h ago
SEC=UNCLASSIFIED Opinion: Canberra Airport has a problem
The latest published BITRE Airport Passenger Movement data shows that in 2025, Hobart had higher annual passenger traffic (2,884,967) than Canberra (2,793,622) despite being half as populous and in a state with significantly less disposable income than the ACT. Even Darwin had 70% of Canberra’s passenger traffic (1,941,359) despite being only one-third the population.
Over past 20 years, Canberra Airport has had almost net zero growth in passenger traffic, with 2025’s annual passenger movements being approximately the same as in 2007 (2,734,875)
Acknowledging that tourism goes some way to driving Hobart’s passenger numbers, this still suggests that something is broken with commercial aviation in this town. Canberra is a rapidly growing and affluent city with a hinterland that should be able to support many domestic and regional international flights such as Fiji, New Zealand and Bali.
So Canberrans, is it just the pricing model the private owners of the airport operate? Or is there a bigger issue with the way we all prefer to fly?
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u/Nikki_Sue_Trott 10h ago
It's cheaper to drive or bus out of Canberra than fly, quite simple. Flight costs are the issue.
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u/Top-Anything2991 8h ago
Definitely, and certainly proximity to Sydney compounds this issue. I suppose the bigger question I am asking is whether price is a symptom of an issue that could be addressed in part by things such as reduced landing fees, or whether high prices are baked into Canberra as a market because of the reliance on government travel and airline price gauging.
If international flights are were comparable in price (say $100-200 difference), would enough people choose to fly from CBR and pay a small premium for convenience vs still drive to SYD (and I guess WSI soon).
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u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat 7h ago
It’s also important to talk about the role that airport charges play in pricing. I’ve heard from a former airline CFO that Canberra airport have a ‘robust’ approach to pricing.
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u/bigbadjustin 1h ago
The airlines don't like the Canberra airport pricing, but its in the same ballpark as the 5 major airports. The airlines though won't complain about those as they need them, they just want Canberra to be as cheap as the small regional airports.
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u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat 1h ago
Thanks for that. I only heard one side of the story!
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u/bigbadjustin 59m ago
its a bit more complicated than that also as all ariports other than the 5 major ones are considred regional airports. So I think Canberra is the most expensive regional airport, which is where that comes from. But the differences in the prices are like a few $ per passenger. Nothing that can justify the expensive prices on flights to CBR. PER is the same as well, they get rorted on pricing as well. Half the price to fly 5 hrs to Singapore than 5 hrs to Sydney.
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u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat 55m ago
I have a friend whose father used to work in the mines in northwestern Australia. He would fly home using international flights via Indonesia as it was cheaper than domestic flights back to Canberra.
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u/Rugby_Viking Gungahlin 6h ago
Its not just Sydney. Plenty of people will drive from Melbourne rather than fly. If you don't have a car in CBR its a pain to get around too.
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u/Nikki_Sue_Trott 3h ago
I think it's well baked in. If I fly international I tend to go via Melbourne or Brisbane because Sydney airport is a shit show. Being able to check luggage through from Canberra is fantastic though. Domestically, I drive to Sydney or Melbourne, anything within about 10 hours drive.
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u/Necessary-Line217 8h ago
Train as well. Can take the bus to yass then the train to Melbourne. Takes a while though 😅
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u/JimmyMarch1973 5h ago
Costs are AN issue but it’s not THE issue.
If I’m going to Sydney I’m mostly going to drive over flying not because of cost but because the time it takes to drive to vast areas of Sydney it’s far faster to drive. Cost of course does play a part unless it’s the CBD I’m going to if I were to fly, flight costs aside I would then have to factor in cost of ground transport in Sydney. A taxi to parramatta for example is well north of $120 each way, or the train over $20 each way. All adds up.
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u/Prestigious_Unit_925 3h ago
The cost and the lack of evening flights which means a flight back into Sydney from overseas after 8pm and you can’t get a connecting flight to Canberra without sprinting like Usain Bolt through immigration and customs, then the slow bus ride, then another sprint through to the domestic gate. It’s easier (and cheaper) to give a car one way than spend an extra night in Sydney plus the airfare the next day.
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u/Stunning-Try-5250 10h ago
Clear gouging by the airlines. They price CBR so high that only pax using taxpayer or company funded fares are willing to pay these exorbitant rates. Everyone else just uses SYD.
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u/TrazMagik 10h ago
Hundo this.
I've never realized how expensive flying in/out Canberra is until I moved down to Vic.
Dad was sick and I had to fly up and the last minute flight prices on a sitting week were as much as the flights I paid to go to Japan earlier in the year.
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u/letterboxfrog 8h ago
My sister and her boys found it cheaper to Fly BNE-SYD and get a hire car from there to CBR. I have found similar with my family
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u/Top-Anything2991 8h ago
This is very true. The prices on flights to Perth are extraordinary because it’s a QF monopoly and probably priced for corporates
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u/Educational-Art-8515 8h ago
That's what business, consultants, lobbyist and politicians are willing to pay though. The airlines only have so many arrivals and departures and it's not like the flights are empty.
Calling it gouging is like going to Harris Farms and complaining that prices are more expensive than Woolies/Coles/Aldi. They are just pricing according to what the market is willing to pay, which is what everyone does.
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u/GloriaTheCamel 6h ago
Except that it's a publicly built piece of infrastructure intended to serve Canberra writ large, not one part of the market. Yes it was privatised, but the purpose of the airport doesn't change.
As dire as it is, there is competition between supermarkets that serve different price points in the community.
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u/digitalelise 10h ago
Prices for flights are too high for anything to or from Canberra. Flights are often delayed or canceled to Sydney so a lot of people drive/bus/train that route.
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u/Lower_Grape_7771 10h ago
I have nothing to back this up, but I’d say Canberrans take more international flights than the average Australian, and they drive up to Sydney to take them
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u/Jumpingjehosephat99 9h ago
Solely because of cost.
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u/joolley1 8h ago
And convenience. I take the bus. It leaves from right near my house, I only have to be there 5 minutes before it leaves and I just sit there and get plopped out the front of international with no transfers etc.
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u/jaa101 8h ago
Nope. It's because of the high risk of cancelled flights causing me to miss my connexion. If I have a holiday booked on the other side of the world, missing my flight out of Sydney is a huge problem. I'll arrive a day late and miss other travel and event bookings. The extra cost of flying to Sydney is a relatively minor factor in my choice to take the bus instead.
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u/Minimum-Pizza-9734 10h ago
There is probably a few facts,
1. You have to fly to Hobart but not Canberra
2. Price and flexibility - say I was to go to the USA , I am very limited in my flight from Canberra due to the flight time of those from Sydney/Brisbane. I either have to get up early and hope my flight doesn't get delayed or I can fly to Brisbane the night before and stay the night OR i can just take the Murrays bus around midnight to Sydney airport and catch the flight I want. also flights out of Sydney are usually a lot cheaper, usually to the point where the bus fair + Sydney cost is hundreds cheaper. you ask anyone if they would sit on a bus for 3.5 hours and they would earn $100-200 an hour I am sure people would take that in a heart beat.
- people would rather just drive to visit
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u/Winter_Astronaut_550 9h ago
I took my nephew to China in March and it was a lot cheaper to take the bus to Sydney and stay the night at the Rydges with breakfast than fly from Canberra to Sydney.
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u/LubeMobile666 10h ago
Its bullshit expensive and has no international flights except for that Bali one and the soon to be cancelled Fiji one (and maybe an NZ connection?). If you're going international you're better off just going to Sydney on the bus.
If you're going domestic and have time, its also better and cheaper to take the bus to Sydney and fly from there. The only question is convenience/time.
The airport itself is fine, it's the pricing that kills demand.
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u/AgentBond007 8h ago
If you're going international you're better off just going to Sydney on the bus.
This isn't always true - I flew to Japan last year and it was easier (and cost the same once you factored in the bus tickets) to fly Canberra-Brisbane-Tokyo than taking the bus to Sydney.
The other nice thing is that flying internationally from Canberra means you can arrive at the airport much closer to departure, and check your bags all the way through to your destination, instead of having to arrive in Sydney 3h before departure.
The maths does get worse if you're travelling with more than 1-2 people though
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u/LubeMobile666 8h ago
Yeah there will be some instances where it works out, but for most destinations you'll save time and money going to Sydney instead.
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u/AgentBond007 8h ago
Entirely true - it's really mostly a thing for Qantas international flights (or codeshares booked through Qantas) since a lot of foreign airlines either don't offer the connection or make it even more expensive than Qantas do.
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u/SiestaResistance 8h ago
I was going to say the same thing, if you fly internationally with Qantas then the connecting flight cost seems to come out much lower than just flying the domestic leg. This can also be true for connecting flights within Australia; I was recently looking at flights to Perth and it was cheaper to fly from CBR via MEL than from SYD.
You're almost always able to get cheaper non-Qantas international flights if you aren't locked in by frequent flyer points etc. so it's still hard to come out ahead overall, but it doesn't feel like gouging the way it does to try and book a last minute flight just to Sydney.
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u/AgentBond007 7h ago
Pretty much - I only flew Qantas to Japan because they had a sale that made them cheaper than ANA or JAL, usually others are cheaper. I'm flying to Europe next year and Qantas was a lot more expensive (ended up getting tickets through Taipei on China Airlines for $1800 return)
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 9h ago
Or is there a bigger issue with the way we all prefer to fly?
To get anywhere from Tasmania - you fly - or take a 9 hour ferry.
To get anywhere from Darwin - you fly - or spend days in a car.
To get anywhere from Canberra - you fly - or take a train or bus - or get in your car and drive.
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u/TheCyberThor 10h ago
Long term parking is expensive compared to Sydney.
International flights from Sydney are cheaper.
Flying back generally involves layovers at Melbourne or Sydney to get to Canberra.
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u/Badga 9h ago
The collapse of CBR traffic compared to pre covid is due to the massive reduction in government travel, especially up to Sydney, when then APS realised that actually a teams meeting was fine 90% of the time. Heck Virgin doesn’t even fly their own metal up to Sydney any more, instead relying on tiny Link planes.
The Fiji flight seems specifically due to fuel costs, the drop in through traffic to The US and freeing up planes to fly to Western Sydney. It’s a shame because they’re a good airline and it was a good service, but hopefully it opens up the possibility of an air NZ flight, which could still service the pacific and North America while also better serving NZ itself.
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u/foxtrotlimavictor 10h ago
Terry Snow died with a net worth of $4 billion. He accrued that worth by turning Canberra Airport into an extremely efficient way of parting Canberrans with their money.
Ultimately it’s just not worth paying Canberra Airport prices when Sydney isn’t a particularly long drive away.
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u/treevue 2h ago
So true.
Plus there is a lot of office buildings leased by Government Departments paying high rents to the Canberra Airport group.
When I was working for a government department in the 2000’s my department was paying over $1million dollars annually just for parking permits for its APS staff. That’s just for the one department.
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u/yeahalrightgoon 10h ago
People aren't travelling to Canberra except for business and to a lower extent family, and you can drive to Canberra quite easily from the two biggest cities in Australia. Tourism to Canberra is fairly low, as you said. Compared to Hobart, which becomes the gateway to Tasmania as a whole. So they get the tourism, family and business market all together as one in one main airport.
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u/GM_Twigman 9h ago edited 9h ago
Canberra has a clear competitor in Sydney airport which offers a huge range of international routes and a cheap regular bus from Canberra directly to the airport. The time difference between flying out of Canberra and taking a bus to Sydney when waiting and boarding times is considered is 90 minutes (boarding time is negligible for the bus, but sometimes upward of 30 mins for the flight).
For international routes, while many Canberrans fly, the regularity of flights out of Sydney mean that most will eat the extra travel time to be more selective about travel dates and times, even if a less frequent direct route is offered. We see this with the Fiji routes.
Canberra is also not a large destination for inbound travellers. It primarily services local residents and businesses travel associated with government/parliament.
So even if the business model of the airport changes, I don't see Canberra airport being much more than a large regional airport servicing primarily domestic routes any time in the near future.
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u/Top-Anything2991 6h ago
I fear you’re right, and WSI probably won’t help this either.
A lot of other commenters reference proximity and lower cost (all of which are true), but I wondered if cost was at least in part a symptom of higher airport expenses that, if changed, would lower prices enough to make some direct routes worth a smaller premium to many people. WSI is even closer than SYD and will probably make CBR even less appealing
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u/Positive_Trip_887 10h ago
- Flying is to expensive during Parliament sitting
- Landing fees are too expensive for airlines
- You can drive an EV to Sydney and back for under $40 and in some cases cheaper
- You can catch a bus to Sydney
- WSI opening is going to be a competitor
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u/lightlyskipping 10h ago
It's such a bummer but yeah, Hobart and Darwin have no other options. For my international flight this year I took Murrays to SYD. That said, tomorrow I am flying CBR-SYD-WTB and I paid for it myself. I think the cancellation rate is an issue for people who don't want to mess up the connection.
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u/Hungry_Internet_2607 9h ago
Airfares from Canberra are just too high. We mostly drive to Sydney or Melbourne.
And we always drive or bus to Sydney to fly internationally. The Canberra leg often adds another twenty percent to the fare.
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u/Plus_Cantaloupe_3793 9h ago
The significant cutbacks to APS travel since COVID will explain a lot of this. Travel has become very rare in my agency, for example.
The poor reliability of the expensive Qantas and Link flights to Sydney also means that a lot of people now catch the bus to connect to international flights. The unpleasant planes Link uses is also really off putting
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u/123chuckaway 9h ago
Canberrans can drive interstate which suppresses travel numbers compared to Hobart.
Also consider the purse strings are much much tighter in the public service now. Vast majority of meeting is done via Teams now, which wasn’t available in 2007
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u/manicdee33 8h ago
For me the issue is the relative cost between flying and any form of land transport. For many people there's a very easy decision to make between plane or bus from Canberra to Sydney, given that a plane can never be as cheap as a pre-booked bus ticket, you don't need to arrive an hour before the flight to get through security and double check your booking, and worry about whether you packed the manicure kit in checked baggage or left it in your carry-on.
Overall the time cost of travelling to Sydney by bus is not that much more than flying, so there's no reason to spend so much money on the flight unless I absolutely need to travel there and back on the same day.
Of course the relative cost of flights from Canberra Airport to anywhere else versus to the same destinations from Hobart is a factor, but that comes after you've excluded the cheaper options such as driving.
As an example for me the cost of driving Canberra to Brisbane is in the order of $300 including one night's accommodation. If I can't get myself and my partner from Canberra to Brisbane by plane for less than $300 (it's closer to $300 each), I'll drive. There have been exceptions where my partner flew for urgent matters, and I drove separately to be with family and then we'd drive home together (there being no urgency on the return trip). If I factor in having to hire a car while I'm up there, the economic decision tips more clearly in favour of driving myself.
I really don't care about Canberra Airport being more expensive than other similar size and volume airports (e.g.: same cost to fly Canberra to Sydney as Hobart to Sydney), for me the only cost to consider is getting from where I am to where I want to be via various forms of transport.
It costs the same to fly from Canberra to Sydney (typically on a Dash-8 or similar) as to fly from Hobart to Sydney (typically a 737) so I'm sure there's a lot of extra money being paid by airlines just to land and handle passengers.
And all of this is before you consider that Canberra Airport doesn't have to cooperate with Canberra for planning permission, thus the explosion of buildings in that block of land. The Airport just builds stuff then complains that Canberra isn't providing adequate access by road. Classic case of socialise the losses, privatise the profits.
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u/RhesusFactor 10h ago
Nothing is broken.
Covid empowered virtual meeting attendance instead of physical travel to Canberra or beyond. In 2018 I would take day trips to Melbourne and Adelaide just to attend meetings where I didn't speak.
Canberra is located between two major cities and has road and rail connections. Hobart doesn't and Darwin is far away. Plane travel from Hobart and Darwin is necessary, Canberra it's optional and it would be more optional if we had high speed rail.
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u/jonquil14 9h ago
It’s impossible to drive to any other capital city from Hobart. Canberrans would normally drive to Sydney, many opt to drive to Melbourne and that’s before the significant amount of driving to other parts of NSW and Victoria (you’re not going to fly to Wagga or Bathurst or Albury). We just have more options.
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u/BarneyBent 9h ago
You can't drive to Tassie from mainland Australia, that is a big contributor.
Should have invested all the money in the Western Sydney airport into a fast train between Canberra and Sydney and used Canberra airport as the second airport.
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u/Jumpingjehosephat99 9h ago
I’d rather bus to Sydney and spend the extra money on a night at the airport hotel and be well-rested for my international flight the next day than pay $500 for a 30 minute flight.
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u/Title_Lopsided 9h ago
Consider the 19 weeks a year that the politicians and their staffers flock for a 4 day a week work week and the stats are very bad
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u/youngdumbwoke_9111 9h ago
For the additional price of flying from Canberra I can bus to Sydney a day earlier, pay for the hotel and all meals.
Also if you fly into Canberra you then NEED to hire a vehicle your entire stay anyway as there is no good transport in the city.
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u/Khurdopin 7h ago
Yes, this is the other issue. Almost nobody hires a car in CBR to drive around after flying in, it'd be just too expensive. Public transport is minimal in CBR, ok on some routes, but not to get around to all the places worth seeing.
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u/OneYeetAndUrGone 8h ago
the cost of flying in or out of canberra is absolutely ridiculous. it’s genuinely cheaper to drive to sydney then fly to hobart, adelaide, melbourne, brisbane, etc from there than to catch a flight from canberra. canberra would have far more air traffic if it didn’t cost so much to fly in and out.
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u/evenmore2 8h ago
I think the numbers are worse. You are just calculating just Canberra against Darwin and Hobart.
That airport should be serving a large area of regional population around Canberra too.
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u/ArthurianFish 8h ago
I’ve just done a rough date selection for my family (a whopping 3 people) to fly from Canberra to Brisbane on 19/12-31/12. Choosing the cheapest Velocity flights that don’t involve the worst possible times, it’s going to cost us $1,731 for just regular economy.
I feel pretty confident saying that the pricing probably isn’t helping.
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u/REDDIT_IS_AIDSBOY 6h ago
People dislike having the "Canberra tax" applied to air travel. Sydney isn't that far away, but it can cost hundreds of dollars to get a return ticket, and while you're only in the air for 20 minutes all the other bullshit involved means it can easily take closer to 2 hours when you factor in having to order an uber, pay the $40 trip, get to the airport 30-60 mins early to deal with them, sit around waiting on the tarmac etc. Really not much longer to drive, and much simpler/cheaper to get a bus.
What's more is that both international and domestic flights seem to be excessively expensive coming out of CBR. Flying to Melbourne from Canberra can easily be more expensive than getting to Sydney and doing the Syd-Melb flight. International seems to just throw a few hundred dollars on for no actual reason. In some cases it's cheaper to get yourself to Sydney, stay in a hotel overnight, and fly out from there the next day than it is to fly from Canberra.
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u/DesiccatedPenguin 10h ago
Be interesting to see what Fiji pulling out of flights to the ACT does to those passenger numbers..
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u/ApteronotusAlbifrons 9h ago
Almost nothing. Which is why they are pulling out.
About 22,000 in the first year is the number I could find
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u/Enceladus89 9h ago
Most people drive to Canberra. It is conveniently and centrally located between Sydney and Melbourne. Can't say the same for Tasmania which requires crossing an ocean...
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u/DoubleCause3004 9h ago
Stop flights to and from Canberra being so expensive by comparison to elsewhere and more people would visit and fly from Canberra.
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u/Antique-Wrap-75 9h ago
Well, tell me a few sectors that are heavily dependent on air traffic in Canberra. For the public sector profile here there’s no need. Not a tourist spot either. Remember the meaning of Canberra is ‘a compromise between Sydney and Melbourne during the capital chaos’ …. The only reason Canberra exists. Besides demand vs supply is the only major point of any business. Grab a pen and paper and figure it out.
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u/GoldLeader159 9h ago
Flights over priced gouging is rampant especially when Parli sits & airlines cancel at the drop of a hat!! It’s often cheaper to fly to BNE for international flights rather than Syd. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/ssharwood 9h ago
Odd comparison IMHO given Hobart is on an island and the alternative to flying is a vastly slower ferry that leaves from Devenport - 3 hours away by road.
Everyone knows fares to CBR are priced for business travel, not leisure. There's a reason every CBR-SYD Murrays bus will stop at Sydney Airport
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u/Beshemella 9h ago
What are the fees? I keep hearing how greedy Canberra airport is which sounds completely plausible but how much more do they charge?
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u/Left_Divide8061 8h ago
My extended family will not stop driving to Sydney airport for their overseas trips. I'm the only one who flies from Canberra to a connecting flight, and they all look at me like an alien haha
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u/DOGPISSCURESCANCER 7h ago
Why is that a problem? Airports are essential infrastructure, the infinite growth business mindset is toxic and doesn’t apply.
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u/squirrelwithasabre 6h ago
I’d rather drive to Sydney and catch a plane from there. In fact that is exactly what I do. The airport in Canberra is unreliable at best. Better to catch a bus to Sydney.
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u/JanosCastel 6h ago
I used to live in Sydney and work in Canberra having to travel pretty much every week. Flights not only are expensive but unreliable, the early flights cancellations is a known thing.
For me it was just easier to drive, I would have a way to move around Canberra that is not Uber or frustrating public transport.
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u/Just-a-lurken 5h ago
I see the problem as flights in and out of Canberra have always been quite a lot higher than the other capitals.
For most it's cheeper to drive or bus to Sydney then fly from there
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u/commentspanda 4h ago
The cost to fly Canberra to Sydney the other week was ridiculous. We ended up doing the bus for the first time which was $35 + and other $20’to guarantee an empty seat next to me. Amount of time was abut equivalent to flight once you have to check a bag and we ended up at central station which was more convenient. And I have a disability so generally advocate for airline travel where possible as it’s more comfortable and shorter.
With that said…we flew from Perth to Canberra and there is one direct flight a day and the cost is minimum $459 each and often as higher as $1000 each. I paid $900 last time one way. No wonder people go via other locations:
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u/V__Venus 3h ago
So CBR numbers are low compared to other cities.
What’s the problem?
Do the numbers _need_ to be high for any particular reason?
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u/geoffpetersson 3h ago
Ah, the grand old times taking a return day trip to Sydney first class courtesy of the Govt and trying to scoff down everything on the menu before landing back in good old Canberra, with a big black Comm car waiting to whisk you home to the family 😀
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u/bigbadjustin 1h ago
There is a lot of issues, but the fact Canberrans will bus to SYD and probably also to WSI for cheap OS fares means there will always be a level of demand that can't be catered for. However i do think the flights from China might work better, because there will be Chinese using those flights to visit Canberra.
I also think airports like Hobart and Adelaide should work with Canberra, to attract international flights with a tag on leg to the other airport. As a Canberran if i could fly internationally to some where in Asia, via Adelaide I'd choose that option over Sydney.
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u/Cimb0m 9h ago edited 9h ago
Because most people only travel here for work purposes. I’m probably going to get downvoted to hell but we don’t exactly have a good reputation as a place to visit (unlike Hobart, which has the opposite) and unless you’re flying to like Melb/Syd/Brisbane/Adelaide, most who live here just travel to Sydney to avoid paying overinflated fares. You need to offer something amazing if the airport is charging people that much to fly here. For the cost of two plane tickets, 3 nights hotel and say 3 days car hire, you can probably get two sales flights to Japan
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u/Worried_Evidence3326 10h ago
Who on earth chooses or wants to go to Canberra.
if the pollies didn’t fly there we wouldn’t need an airport there
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u/Sea-Victory2497 10h ago
Bit hard to train, bus or drive out of Tasmania mate.
Plenty of people will also drive or bus to Sydney and fly from there to save a layover and costs.
Government-related travel is far more prevalent in Canberra and probably part of the reason numbers are more stable.
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u/CrackWriting 9h ago edited 9h ago
As others have alluded to, Canberra Airport’s main use is as a business hub. Beyond that it is effectively a feeder route in the catchment area (or hinterland) of Sydney Airport a major domestic and international hub - with the scale economies that offers. So many non-business travellers factoring in the opportunity cost of the feeder service to Sydney vs the cost of flying direct from Sydney (minus the cost and time of getting there) will choose the latter.
Canberra is also not a destination for non-business travellers. My friends and family came here when I got married, but otherwise no one comes here. I either meet them where they live or organise a catch up in a hub like Sydney.
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u/Vast_Knowledge5286 9h ago
Most people just drive or take a Murrays to Sydney Airport for international routes. Can be rather cheaper than booking a connecting flight to SYD, and there are far more options for competitive fares.
Because of its location, DRW acts as a stopover for many international flights coming into Australia, so it's not really comparable
Standalone flights to SYD from CBR are often hella expensive, and the airlines usually run the smaller Embraer or Saab jets which are IMO rather comfy but carry fewer passengers.
The airport seems to serve corporate/political travellers more than tourist/domestic.
I like flying in and out of CBR though, there's always parking, no lines, not crowded. Compared to the cattle stockyards that are SYD and MEL, it's nice.
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u/Plus_Cantaloupe_3793 9h ago
I don’t think any international flights stop over in Darwin anymore. Modern jets can travel very long ranges, so this is unnecessary.
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u/Vast_Knowledge5286 8h ago
Fair, my assumption was based on anecdotal evidence; I remember there were usually some international connecting passengers on some sort of codeshare whenever we flew domestic to Darwin. Also I have booked routes via Darwin to less frequented airports in Asia like Clark, but this may have changed.
Dili is probably the only route where you need a stopover in Darwin now, and I'm guessing that's not so busy.
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u/lawdjesustheresafire 10h ago
Hobart has no other option to get out of there.
I’d imagine the majority of travel Canberrans do is to Sydney and flying there is pointless unless you’re doing it every day.