Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Airports Chief Executive Officer Tony Edmondstone

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Katie Woolf spoke with NT Airports Chief Executive Officer Tony Edmondstone · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: But I want to talk about flights coming into the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Northern Territory and joining me on the line right now,
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  Speaker 1: Northern Territory Airport's Chief executive, Tony Edmundstern, Good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Tony, morning Catie, how are you very well?
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  Speaker 1: Thank you now, Tony. I know things out at the
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  Speaker 1: airport aren't as busy as what they would be on
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  Speaker 1: an ordinary year, but by the sounds of things, those
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  Speaker 1: flights are sort of starting to become a little bit
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  Speaker 1: more regular.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Look, I think we're sort of running thirty
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  Speaker 2: five to forty percent of where we would normally be
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  Speaker 2: at this time of year, and you know, really positively,
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  Speaker 2: that's almost double where we were apt probably a couple
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  Speaker 2: of months ago. So you know, I think it really
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  Speaker 2: bodes well for what's coming up in the Christmas rush.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, and obviously those flights yesterday or certainly the borders
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  Speaker 1: opened yesterday to Regional Victoria. Did you have any flights
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  Speaker 1: that arrived from Victoria yesterday?
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  Speaker 2: We did, we did. I was actually my caught up
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  Speaker 2: with the opposition lead deputy last night and he was
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  Speaker 2: one that sort of come out of Geelong from Regional Victoria.
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  Speaker 2: By Melbourne. They're a bit slow sort of coming through
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  Speaker 2: the terminal, so we sort of needed a bit of
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  Speaker 2: patience on that, but he did advice that the flight
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  Speaker 2: was packed.
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  Speaker 1: And what is the process Tony for those arrivals from
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  Speaker 1: Victoria that obviously, you know, we're not allowing those from
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  Speaker 1: Melbourne in, but certainly are allowing those from regional Victoria.
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  Speaker 1: So what's the process in terms of going through and
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  Speaker 1: differentiating those people.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so at Melbourne you're allowed to transit through Tullamarine Airport.
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  Speaker 2: So if you've come from Regional Victoria, subject to sort
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  Speaker 2: of not stopping and integrating in the community, that you
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  Speaker 2: go straight to Tullamarine, jump on the flight and then out.
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  Speaker 2: You're allowed to do that when you arrive here in Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: All arrivals from Melbourne flights come through our international terminal
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  Speaker 2: and assorted pretty clearly by health authorities and others at
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  Speaker 2: that point in time. So you know, those that come
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  Speaker 2: out of Metro Melbourne out to how it springs. Those
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  Speaker 2: that come from Regional then are allowed to depart the
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  Speaker 2: terminal on their own cord.
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  Speaker 1: And it seems that those things are going all fairly smoothly.
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  Speaker 1: I know I've gone through the process of arriving back
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  Speaker 1: from Queensland and going through the checks with the health
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  Speaker 1: officials and i'll tell you what, I think we're doing
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  Speaker 1: an incredibly good job here in the Northern Territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did note that you had sort of minister
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  Speaker 2: files on earlier. You know, all credit to the health
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  Speaker 2: team that they've been fantastic both here and in Ella Springs.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we haven't been short of resources from that,
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  Speaker 2: and to be frank, other than the occasional time where
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  Speaker 2: it's a bit slow, most passengers are getting through in
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  Speaker 2: sort of twenty twenty five minutes, which is really really
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  Speaker 2: comfortable and tony.
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  Speaker 1: When you talk about capacity, Where have we got flights
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  Speaker 1: arriving from into firstly Darwin at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we hit all capitals excluding excluding Hobart the moments,
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  Speaker 2: we've got direct flights to all. Obviously we're still all
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  Speaker 2: sitting waiting on Melbourne Metro and the signs are very
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  Speaker 2: very good. So we expect when Melbourne Metro you know,
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  Speaker 2: reduces in terms of being a hot spot and the
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  Speaker 2: frequency of those travels and the number of passengers on
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  Speaker 2: those will jump up pretty substantially, you know, with the
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  Speaker 2: border reopening on the fourteenth of November to Perth. You know,
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  Speaker 2: I think we've sort of got four or five flights
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  Speaker 2: weekly on those. We expect that that that frequency will increase,
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  Speaker 2: you know, on that post fourteen fourteen November, so you
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  Speaker 2: know we've got connections give the will increase when you know,
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  Speaker 2: WA starts running and of Queensland because a lot of
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  Speaker 2: Virgin people sort of come up through and hub through Queensland.
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  Speaker 1: And then obviously Ola Springs. I would I would imagine
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  Speaker 1: that you've got some flights in and out of Alice
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  Speaker 1: as well at the moment. Are they picking up somewhat too?
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  Speaker 2: Yep, yeah, yeah, yeah. So as I said, you know,
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  Speaker 2: if I think progressively over the last three or four months,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've gone from sort of fifteen percent of
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  Speaker 2: historical for the month of September, we're we're about thirty
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  Speaker 2: five percent of historical. So to put that into context,
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  Speaker 2: that's sort of around about eighty thousand passengers a month.
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  Speaker 2: We would hope in October that jumps up to sort
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  Speaker 2: of forty five to fifty percent because we've got Sydney
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  Speaker 2: opening and we can sort of hopefully crack one hundred
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  Speaker 2: thousand passengers a month. Number.
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  Speaker 1: Wow. So you are anticipating that things are going to
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  Speaker 1: get much busier, and then are you expecting it to
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  Speaker 1: get even busier then for the month of December.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we do expect, you know again, you know Christmas
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  Speaker 2: time at borders are opening, and I know there's a
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  Speaker 2: plan now with most states and territories to be opening.
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  Speaker 2: We're expecting a lot of people sort of heading out
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  Speaker 2: to visit friends and relatives and likewise Southerners to come
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  Speaker 2: up and enjoy the sunshine.
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  Speaker 1: And Tony, I'm sure that in your industry, you know,
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  Speaker 1: more so than a lot of others. We know that
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  Speaker 1: the aviation industry has been hit so incredibly hard when
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  Speaker 1: you talk about COVID. But obviously the government announced yesterday
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  Speaker 1: those additional safeguards when it comes to the tracking and tracing,
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  Speaker 1: so people obviously, you know, submitting their details when they
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  Speaker 1: go into a location for longer than fifteen minutes. I
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  Speaker 1: know the airport obviously has a lot of safeguards in
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  Speaker 1: place already. But is this a good move from your
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  Speaker 1: perspective to really try our best to avoid any further
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  Speaker 1: lockdowns down the track?
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  Speaker 2: Ah? Look, I think you know, if there's one thing,
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  Speaker 2: you know, we've had you know we've had COVID come
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  Speaker 2: into the territory or who we haven't had community spread.
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  Speaker 2: We've had it come into the territory before at a
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  Speaker 2: point in time in Australia doing a fantastic job. But
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  Speaker 2: you know there's every chance that it will come in again.
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  Speaker 2: If it does come in, you know, it's how quickly
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  Speaker 2: you can you can track and trace and clamp on.
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  Speaker 2: It is going to be the driver. So I think
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  Speaker 2: it's a fantastic idea that's sort of coming out as
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  Speaker 2: we copy the rest of the States.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely well. Anti Airport's Chief executive Officer, Tony Edmondston really
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for having
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  Speaker 1: a chat with us.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks Cady, Bye bye