Avalon’s Gold Coast flights restart in December

THE skies are clearing at Avalon Airport, with flights to and from the Gold Coast resuming in mid-December.

Bookings have already opened for Jetstar’s service at Avalon, and the airport’s chief executive officer Justin Giddings expects demand to surge from Boxing Day onwards and into the new year.

Last week, the Queensland government released details for the restrictions when Queensland’s population was 80 per cent double-vaccinated against COVID-19, which is estimated to occur by December 17 if not earlier.

Under the new rules, people who have been in declared COVID-19 hot spots in the previous two weeks can travel to Queensland and will not have to quarantine, provided they are fully vaccinated and have a negative COVID-19 test taken within the 72 hours before they arrive in Queensland.

“Everyone I know is itching to get away, and with Christmas coming up and a month of school holidays for most kids, I think Queensland’s obviously a popular destination, and it’s perfect timing, so we’re very excited indeed,” Mr Giddings said.

“We don’t have any visibility from the Queensland government other than what we see on TV, so basically we tune in like everyone else to see what’s going on, so we had no pre-warning, but obviously, it’s very welcome news.”

He said Avalon would increase its advertising for Gold Coast flights from this week, but he did not have any figures about the level of bookings so far.

“My prediction would be that before Christmas is generally not as busy as what it is after Christmas.

“Christmas Day is a very quiet day, traditionally, and then it ramps up straight away after that.

“I would imagine they’ll be selling very well, especially in that post-Christmas period.

“We’re ready to go, our terminal is sitting there waiting, it’s very straightforward for us, all our COVIDSafe plans are in place, we’ve got all the new equipment there ready to go – which has all been used earlier in the year, but then we shut down again.

“It’s more difficult for the airlines, because they’re the ones who have to ramp up their staffing.”

Mr Giddings said international travel for tourists was also likely to return soon to Avalon, but this would depend on a formal announcement by the federal government.

“I reckon we will, we’re just waiting on AirAsia to advise what they’re planning to do – I’m hoping that by Christmas, we’ll be doing that.”