With Newcastle Airport set to debut a $250 million upgrade next year, including to its international terminal, this move will support the possibility of international air connections into the second largest city in New South Wales.
Newcastle enjoyed seasonal return services to Auckland which began in 2018, but the airport has not seen international services return since the pandemic.
The financial support comes out of the state’s Aviation Attraction Fund, to which Newcastle Airport applied before the fund closed mid last year.
With the MoU inked, Newcastle Airport will be able to offer airlines wishing to connect international destinations to Newcastle a financial incentive to do so. The airport will also benefit from strategic marketing assistance.
“Initiatives like the Aviation Attraction Fund are critical to supporting our live negotiations to attract new international and domestic airline services,” said Newcastle Airport CEO Dr Peter Cock.
“We know that we are in competition with airports from around Australia and globally, so we applaud the NSW Government for giving us a level playing field to go out and compete.”
Alongside the beaches of Newcastle and the harbour and sand dunes of Port Stephens, international flights and additional domestic services will also make the neighbouring wine region of the Hunter Valley more accessible to visitors – both for leisure and business events.
Newcastle has several large event spaces and over the past few years has acquired two high-end hotels – Crystalbrook Kingsley and the QT Newcastle.
“This MOU provides financial certainty to Newcastle Airport so it can attract new international and domestic airline services, helping the recovery of aviation jobs and providing a significant boost to the local visitor economy,” said the NSW minister for jobs and tourism, John Graham.
Since the pandemic shut down international travel, aviation funds around Australia have attracted thousands of inbound passenger seats into Australia across a variety of airlines.
