News & Discussion: Adelaide Airport & Airlines

[Norman]

1 million internationals? Jee, that's gotta be pretty good for a city of our size?

Unfortunately we only have a 2.5% share of international passengers in Australia. The Gold Coast airport is on par with ours (despite the fact that theirs a terrible airport with no air bridges).

[crawf]

That's great news

[dbl96]

1 million internationals? Jee, that's gotta be pretty good for a city of our size?

Unfortunately we only have a 2.5% share of international passengers in Australia. The Gold Coast airport is on par with ours (despite the fact that theirs a terrible airport with no air bridges).

Anecdotally, I would hazard a guess that most international travelers to and from Adelaide Airport still pass via domestic connections to other airports in Australia. Does anyone have any statistics on this?

Adelaide's lack of direct international connections to many of the most important destinations in Asia (Bangkok, Shanghai, Jakarta, Indian cities, etc.) and to the Americas (particularly to the West Coast) really disincentives travel to and from Adelaide. It makes Adelaide difficult and more expensive for international visitors to access, and makes travel much more expensive for Adelaideans than for residents of the other capitals. Transiting via an East coast capital costs a minimum of around $100 return, and potentially more than $300. People who live in the other capitals do not have to pay for this extra cost, so international travel is much more affordable for them.

Not all of these destinations are necessarily justifiable in terms of current passenger numbers. But considering the number of connections to mainland China operating out of the other cities in Australia, and the number of Chinese international students studying in Adelaide, vastly increased services to Mainland China should be justifiable out of Adelaide Airport right now. It is good that we have the China Southern connection, but it is fairly limited, and doesn't actually provide a particularly good connection to the bulk of the Chinese population. Guangzhou's airport is only about 130km from Hong Kong's. These two airports essentially serve the same area, and that area is distant and isolated from the Chinese heartland in the Yangtze River Delta and North China Plain. Adelaide would benefit greatly from, and should already be able to justify at least one direct connection to an airport in this area, such as Shanghai.

[rev]

India? For what?
New connections Id like to see is to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, probably better connections to Indonesia/Bali, and emerging tourist destinations like Vietnam.

A lot of international travel is done by changing flights at some point. I don’t know why some people think Adelaide should be an exception to this and have exclusive direct fights to everywhere.

AAL should work out deals with Jetstar and Virgin who code share with international airlines on the east coast, to open up routes to the US etc. making it easier.

[SBD]

India? For what?
New connections Id like to see is to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, probably better connections to Indonesia/Bali, and emerging tourist destinations like Vietnam.

A lot of international travel is done by changing flights at some point. I don’t know why some people think Adelaide should be an exception to this and have exclusive direct fights to everywhere.

AAL should work out deals with Jetstar and Virgin who code share with international airlines on the east coast, to open up routes to the US etc. making it easier.

Most of the cities I would like to visit in North America or UK+Europe are likely to require either a domestic flight or ground transport to get there from an international airport of entry. I don't see why it should be that different to come to Adelaide. Do people really choose their holiday or business destination purely on whether or not a domestic transfer is required at the far end of their trip? We need to work to make Adelaide a destination of choice, rather than "Let's go to Adelaide because it's easy to get to".

The way some people talk in this thread, there would be a significant drop in Australian tourism in Toronto if there was a direct flight from Australia to Vancouver, because the tourists and business travellers would choose to go to Vancouver instead (I have been to both, and needed transfers on both trips). Did the number of Australian tourists in Dallas jump significantly when Australian flights started going there instead of Los Angeles? Did LA tourism drop?

[Ho Really]

Something for you guys to play with...



You can add many more destinations, such as: Chennai, Kolkata, Phuket, Hanoi, Chengdu, Xi'an, Osaka, Honolulu, etc...

Cheers

P.S. Notice direct international flight to Christchurch. Also Christchurch and Wellington can be reached from Melbourne which is probably preferable than awful Sydney.

P.P.S. I've edited the map to include Chengdu, Chennai, Osaka and Xi'an.

[GrowAdelaide]

Need to add Osaka (Kansai) we have a strong connection with Himeji as a sister city and Okayama as a sister state. The majority of short term international students, i.e. study tours, come from this region.

[kenget]

Something for you guys to play with...

Thanks for this but is there any timeline for this or is it just a pipe dream?

Reason I ask is because I actually went hunting for something official and could only find the current routes:


https://www.adelaideairport.com.au/flig ... -adelaide/

Cheers

[Ho Really]

Thanks for this but is there any timeline for this or is it just a pipe dream?

Reason I ask is because I actually went hunting for something official and could only find the current routes:

Cheers

The image I posted is something I put together in response to the posts before mine so we can actually visualise the potential connections between Adelaide and the rest of the world. It is possible that some are in the pipeline. We can only speculate. The only one we know for sure AAL is working on is a service to the West Coast of the USA and possibly another to China.

Cheers

[dbl96]

India? For what?
New connections Id like to see is to Japan, South Korea, Thailand, probably better connections to Indonesia/Bali, and emerging tourist destinations like Vietnam.

A lot of international travel is done by changing flights at some point. I don’t know why some people think Adelaide should be an exception to this and have exclusive direct fights to everywhere.

AAL should work out deals with Jetstar and Virgin who code share with international airlines on the east coast, to open up routes to the US etc. making it easier.

Your seem to be thinking mostly in terms of outbound tourism, which is an important, but not the most important market for direct international connections.

Of greater importance as a driver for international connections is the market for inbound education, migration and tourism, and for business. The massive markets of countries like India, and particularly China, can deliver far greater greater numbers of passengers, than can be delivered by outbound tourism to places like Bali and Vietnam.

In fact, they already do - Mainland China and India are overwhelmingly our biggest source countries for migrants and international students. China is the biggest source country for tourism. The massive consumer markets of these countries are already extremely important for South Australian business and exports. Why is this the case? Because these countries are massive. They have as many people as entire continents. To put things in perspective, an average sized province in China has as many people as entire countries like Vietnam, Thailand and South Korea. Many Indian states are even bigger. The Chinese don't have as much buying power as the peoples like the Koreans, but they have much, much more than those like the Vietnamese and Thais. While Indians are, on average very poor, some tens of millions are very well off, and average wealth is rapidly increasing.

Currently, most of the large numbers of passengers travelling from these countries for these purposes have to transit via other Australian cities, or hubs like Singapore and Hong Kong. Sydney already has direct connections to 18 different cities on the Chinese mainland. Melbourne has direct connections to 12. Adelaide having direct connections to more of these places would better support current economic activity in the state, and lay the foundations for substantial growth.

I did mention Thailand and Indonesia as important connections, although Bali seems already fairly well served. I agree that Japan would be a very useful connection. Potentially, South Korea and Vietnam would be quite useful as well, but as you say, a lot of international travel is done by changing flights, and we will never be able to justify direct flights to everywhere.

The most important thing is to improve connections to economically important regions which have high potential to benefit our economy by increasing migration and tourism to South Australia, and facilitating business and exports (including education). India, and particularly China are already our most important markets for these purposes, and are on track to become even more important. That is why I mention them as most important for direct flights. Its really not just about where Australians want to go on holiday, although that said, China and India are both fascinating countries to visit, something more Australians would do well to be aware of.

[Stefan P]

Evening all,

China Southern will increase Adelaide to 5 a week from October. It will then increase to Daily for 2 periods between December and February. It will maintain 5 a week on a regular basis from 30/3/19.

“28OCT18 – 10DEC18 (Day x35 from ADL)
11DEC18 – 04JAN19 Daily
05JAN19 – 28JAN19 (Day x35 from ADL)
29JAN19 – 21FEB19 Daily
22FEB19 – 30MAR19 (Day x35 from ADL)

CZ663 CAN2210 – 0955+1ADL
CZ664 ADL1135 – 1805CAN 330”

[AndyWelsh]

The plaza when you come out of the Airport looks a lot bigger now that they’re close to opening the hotel.








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[Patrick_27]

Opening date is September 1, they'e now taking bookings.

My only criticism is the lack of awnings and that massive blank wall at ground level...

[Patrick_27]

I also don't understand why they've kept the remnants of the old departures car bridge... It's a clunky concrete structure that should have gone with the plaza development.

[AndyWelsh]

I thought these photos might be useful in future discussions as the airport and the area around the new hotel is developed.






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