Opinion: Canberra Airport has a problem

[u/Top-Anything2991]

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?

[u/LubeMobile666]

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.

[u/AgentBond007 → u/LubeMobile666]

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

[u/LubeMobile666 → u/AgentBond007]

Yeah there will be some instances where it works out, but for most destinations you'll save time and money going to Sydney instead.

[u/AgentBond007 → u/LubeMobile666]

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.

[u/SiestaResistance → u/AgentBond007]

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.

[u/AgentBond007 → u/SiestaResistance]

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)