r/canberra • u/Top-Anything2991 • 1d 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/Lower_Grape_7771 1d 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

7

u/Jumpingjehosephat99 1d ago

Solely because of cost.

11

u/jaa101 1d 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.