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Katie spoke with Darwin International Airport Acting CEO Tom Ganley · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously you heard the Chief Minister Michael Gunner give us
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: a bit more detail I think you'd have to say
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: about these London dar and Direct flights and how they're
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: going to roll out in the requirements when it comes
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: to quarantine. Now it doesn't sound as though it's going
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: to be as easy as many of you might have thought.
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  Speaker 2: You are still going to require a quarantine at Howard
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  Speaker 2: Springs for fourteen days at this stage. But joining me
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  Speaker 2: on the line to talk more about this from an
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  Speaker 2: operational perspective is the acting CEO of the Darwen International Airport,
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  Speaker 2: Tom Ganley.
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  Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Tom.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, how are you very well?
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  Speaker 1: Good to have you on the show. Tom. First up,
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  Speaker 1: can I just clear.
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  Speaker 2: Up because I know there was a bit of confusion
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  Speaker 2: yesterday about whether there is actually a flight back from
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  Speaker 2: London direct to Darwin.
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  Speaker 1: Or do you need to go via Melbourne or Sydney.
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  Speaker 3: The flight does return to Darwen and to Sydney, so
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  Speaker 3: it will just depend on the quarantine restrictions at the
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  Speaker 3: time as to where the passengers get off or go
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  Speaker 3: on to Sydney. So yeah, I think the Chief Minister
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  Speaker 3: spoke yesterday as you've just alluded to just on the
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  Speaker 3: quarantine requirements in respect of the Northern Territory, So there
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  Speaker 3: will be quarantine required indeed at whatever port the customers
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  Speaker 3: get off.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Now, Tom, at this stage, what's the airport got to
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  Speaker 2: do in terms of gearing up for these flights? Is
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  Speaker 2: there many changes that need to take place or anything
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  Speaker 2: out there at the airport.
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  Speaker 3: We're very lucky, we're prepared. You know, we've undertaken repatriation
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  Speaker 3: flights since August, and you know we've got international domestic
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  Speaker 3: terminal here existing, so there is already that physical separation
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  Speaker 3: between the flights. What we do have to do is
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  Speaker 3: gear up because this is an exciting announcement. It means
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  Speaker 3: you know, jobs, there's customs officers, there's fueling, there's ground
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  Speaker 3: handlers required. So that's what we are required to do
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  Speaker 3: is to bring people on board. The flight is coming
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  Speaker 3: in in the evening, so it means we can keep
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  Speaker 3: the terminal opening open in the evening. So we are
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  Speaker 3: working very closely with help and Countesstance the other agencies
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  Speaker 3: that are required to make this flight the absolute success
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  Speaker 3: is going to be.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that that's what we're all hoping
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  Speaker 2: as well that if it is that, you know, it
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  Speaker 2: can continue on post.
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  Speaker 3: April, absolutely, and a lot of work goes into getting
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  Speaker 3: new flights into Darwin, and you know, it is great
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  Speaker 3: to have that connection, and you know we are geographically
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  Speaker 3: very well plasced in the world. Indeed, we've been doing
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  Speaker 3: these flights to London since nineteen thirty five, so it's
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  Speaker 3: been long recognized just what a great connection point Darwin
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  Speaker 3: is and bringing that critical mass up from Sydney and
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  Speaker 3: indeed Melbourne on the eighteenth of December will really contribute
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: to the success of these flights.
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  Speaker 2: Now do we know Tom give how many days a
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  Speaker 2: week at this point in time these flights are going
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  Speaker 2: to operate, and how many there will be a.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Week, So it's going to oper five days per week.
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  Speaker 3: Wednesday and Sundays at this stage will not have flights.
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  Speaker 3: But again, if there are a solid loading, so you know,
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  Speaker 3: there's every opportunity for further flights to be to be
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  Speaker 3: in stated. And the flight leaves here at twenty two
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  Speaker 3: fifty five or ten fifty five in the evening and
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  Speaker 3: gets into to London, you know, sort of just after daybreak,
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  Speaker 3: just in time for breakfast, about six thirty in the morning,
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  Speaker 3: seventeen hour flight or some there.
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  Speaker 2: You go, well, that's good that obviously you're arriving there
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  Speaker 2: for Brecky as well, able to get into it now operationally,
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  Speaker 2: like in terms of they've sort of been discussion about
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  Speaker 2: a bubble at the airport, but I'm assuming that that's
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  Speaker 2: sort of similar to what you've already got operating at
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  Speaker 2: the moment with those Repat flights.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, so the passengers will not be mixing with other
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  Speaker 3: passengers in the terminal. The International operation for anyone that
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  Speaker 3: remembers the good old days of going to Bailia, it
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  Speaker 3: is a separate part of the terminal. So the international
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  Speaker 3: passengers will be in the international part of the terminal,
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  Speaker 3: and there's that physical separation. Indeed, all of the passengers
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  Speaker 3: will be required to have double vaccination and a PCR
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  Speaker 3: test as indeed, anyone from Darwen joining the flight will be. Also,
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  Speaker 3: you'll notice that Darwin is the only place and in
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  Speaker 3: the Darwen terminal is the only place where you have
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  Speaker 3: to wear masks as well, So our staff are vaccinated
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  Speaker 3: and or wearing masks as well. And indeed anyone in
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  Speaker 3: the terminals wearing a mask and.
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  Speaker 2: Tom you mentioned before that you're going to need to
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  Speaker 2: ramp up, you know, in terms of the staffing and
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  Speaker 2: the operating hours at the airport as well.
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  Speaker 1: I'm guessing with you know, with.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the cafes and things like that that are
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  Speaker 2: operating there, do you anticipate, like, is the airport going
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  Speaker 2: to need to employ additional staff at this point?
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  Speaker 3: Well, what it really does is reinforce job security. This
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  Speaker 3: time last year we were in a world of pain,
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  Speaker 3: so we had to reduce our workforce hours to eighty
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  Speaker 3: percent and indeed, you know, we shut the terminal at
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: night in our Alice Springs operation was shut for two days.
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  Speaker 3: So what this provides is critical mass and it enables
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  Speaker 3: us to do other things. It enables us to invest
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  Speaker 3: in the Northern Territory and the airport, so you'll see
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  Speaker 3: a lot of roadworks happening around the airport. We're also
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  Speaker 3: replacing our aerobridges, so having more flight, indeed opening up
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  Speaker 3: the international capacity enables just critical functions to happen at
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  Speaker 3: the airport.
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  Speaker 2: Tom, how is a passenger capacity going at the moment?
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  Speaker 2: I know it's sort of vebbed and flowed. I suppose
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  Speaker 2: at different times based on those hot sports and Victoria
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  Speaker 2: and indeed New South Wales at the moment still a concern.
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  Speaker 1: But how are those numbers looking?
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  Speaker 3: So certainly this compared to last August we're doing much
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  Speaker 3: much better. But when we compare ourselves to twenty nineteen
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  Speaker 3: sort of pre COVID, you know, our passenger numbers about
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  Speaker 3: forty five percent of what they were, so we still
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  Speaker 3: are at half passenger numbers, and of that essentially at
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the moment our international passage numbers as zero. So with
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: these repatual with these commercial flights to London, we are
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  Speaker 3: really reconstating international traps, can reconnecting Darwin to the world.
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  Speaker 2: Well, Darwin International Airport Acting CEO, Tom Ganley, lovely to
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  Speaker 2: speak to you this morning.
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  Speaker 1: I really appreciate your time.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks very much, Kate,