Melbourne Airport gears up for the Easter rush

Melbourne, Australia - December 10, 2016: Melbourne airport check-in zone

Melbourne Airport will have all hands on deck to manage the holiday rush, with more than 2.1 million passengers expected to pass through the airport’s four terminals between 5 and 25 April.

This represents 95 per cent of 2019 passenger numbers for the equivalent 21-day period, and is 30 per cent higher than last year’s Easter period.

Of those passengers, almost 1.5 million will be travelling domestically, while more than 635,000 international passengers are forecast. This follows a busy Grand Prix weekend, with preliminary data indicating more than 375,000 people travelled through the airport over the four days of the race.

Melbourne Airport chief of aviation Jim Parashos said that the airport is equipped to handle expected passenger volumes, with planning efforts underway for months ahead of the holiday period.

Parashos (right) with Visit Victoria CEO Brendan McClements (left) – Source: LinkedIn/Visit Victoria

“We will have measures in place to facilitate smooth holiday travel, such as increased security staff, strategic aircraft bay allocation to spread passenger loads, additional customer service teams across our car parks, corporate staff assisting in terminals and technicians on hand to quickly respond to any infrastructure issues,” he said.

“We have supported the efforts of airlines, ground handling companies and contractors across the entire airport to recruit to fill vacancies.

“One of our biggest challenges has been baggage handling, and companies have filled around 1,000 roles over the past few months, so we don’t expect to have significant issues over the holidays.

“Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays are shaping up to be the busiest travel days throughout the holiday period. During peak periods, there may be queues, but our staff will be working to move people through check-in and security as quickly as possible.”

Travellers have been advised to arrive one to two hours prior to departure for a domestic flight and two to three hours for an international flight.

Parashos also advised travellers to book car parks as far in advance as possible. He also asked passengers to be patient amid the busy time.

Passengers travelling through Melbourne Airport this Easter can enjoy a range of new retail outlets that have recently opened at the airport, including Sushi Jiro, Icons Victoria and WHSmith in Terminal 1, and Daniel’s Donuts and Soul Origin in Terminal 4.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

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