Coolangatta Domestic and International Airport

Coolangatta in Queensland is the southernmost suburb of Gold Coast, Australia. Its population of 4,869 and is coined from the schooner Coolangatta which was wrecked in that place in 1846. Coolangatta and other immediate neighbouring "Twin Town" Tweed Heads in New South Wales have always shared economy between each other. The Tweed Heads River is home to a thriving fishing fleet, and the seafood is a local specialty catered in the restaurants and pubs of the popular holiday and retirement areas on both ends of the QLD Aand NSW state border. The Coolangatta Airport, now known as Gold Coast Airport, is located at Coolangatta, with also some of the runway going across the border of NSW.

 

Coolangatta Airport, (with IATA code of: OOL, ICAO: YBCG) is a domestic and international Australian airport on the Gold Coast and is located some one hundred kilometer (62 mi) south of Brisbane City. Entry to the airport is located in the suburb of Bilinga in Gold Coast. The runways spans 5 suburbs of twin cities across the border of Queensland and New South Wales states. During summer time, these states are using 2 different time zones. Recently, Gold Coast Airport became the newest hub for the airline company Jetstar Airways. Gold Coast Airport is considered as one of the fastest-growing airports all overAustralia. Currently, it is the sixth busiest and, during financial fiscal year of 2007, has handled more than 3.7M passengers. Moreover, 352,554 visitors passed through the airport in January 2007, which signifies an all-time highest volume of passengers handled in just one month by Gold Coast Airport

 

Climate

Coolongatta has a subtropical humid climate with wet but warm summers and cool but misty winters. Even though there is 4 times as much rainfall during March as there is in month of September, Coolongatta / Gold Coast is considered to have no dry season at all since there is more than a tenth of the rainfall of the wettest month in the direst month of the year.

 

History

 

In 1958, the QLD taxiways and runways were fully-paved, some being upgraded a decade later to allow jet flights began. The current plane terminal was formally opened in 1981 by Acting PM Douglas Anthony, when at the time more than 650,000 passengers were using the airport. The following year, the main runway was lengthened to 2,042 m (6,699 ft), thus permitting the use of wide-body jets by the 2 domestic operators : Trans Australia Airlines and also Ansett Australia both respectively on flights from Sydney and Melbourne.

 

In year 1990, the airport opened its first international service flight from New Zealand, and in 1998, Air New Zealand airlines, a low-cost subsidiary of Freedom Air company began to scheduled no-frills service from Hamilton, NZ with Boeing 737s. In year 2007, the airport celebrated for the commencement of AirAsia X, which offerewd international services directly to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, and Tiger Airways Australia, which commenced its services to Melbourne. In January 2008, the KL route had significantly proved so popular, such that all flights up to March were all booked. AirAsia X has also revealed that they may start a daily service from 6 February 2010 in Coolangatta Airport.