Going for Gold

Gold Coast Airport gears up for the Commonwealth Games and beyond

Take your pick: straight in or downwind for left base, the view on approach to Runway 14 at the Gold Coast is arguably one of Australia’s best. First, the heady combination of creeks and estuaries, rolling surf, kilometres of beach, ubiquitous canals and canal homes, parks and gardens, then the oceanside high rises that evoke more than a passing thought of Waikiki.

Key domestic services bound for Runway 14 from Sydney and Melbourne generally cross the coast just south of the Queensland-NSW border, between the iconic tourist destination of Byron Bay and sleepier Brunswick Heads, before heading north for left base around Burleigh Heads national park and its worldclass surf break.