Newcastle’s new terminal opens to arriving passengers

The arrivals hall is now larger, with new signage and digital wayfinding, and the terminal is capable of handling wide-body jets. The new terminal’s “swing gate” system can transition between domestic and international flights, and it promises to more than double passenger capacity from 1.2 million passengers per year to 2.5 million.

“Delivered over four years, creating 4,400 jobs in the long term, and giving our region a terminal ready to grow beyond 2.5 million passengers a year. Our shareholder councils have built a lasting legacy with this project. Now it’s time to make the region proud,” airport chief executive Linc Horton said.

“This is the largest investment in the region’s aviation tourism history. With this terminal now operational, we’re ready to welcome more visitors, open new trade channels and connect the Hunter to more of the world.”

Speaking to Australian Aviation in June, Horton said there would be an “incredible transition” between the old and new terminals for passengers.

“If you’re used to flying through Newcastle, you’ll come in through the old departures area, but instead of it being quite a small closed-in space, you’ll get this giant void with this beautiful glass wall overlooking the airfield, which for us, has the added attraction of the RAAF base and the daily show we get from those military aircraft,” he said.

“Then as you go through, you’ll have this new incredible food and beverage offer, really providing our region with what they require before they go on to travel for work or pleasure. It then gives us this incredible view through to this new building and our new arrivals process that allows us to handle, much more effectively and efficiently, bigger aircraft and a higher volume.

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“That capacity will be there, whether it’s through our gates, both arrivals and departures, whether it’s through the new baggage system. We have those collection points with the ability to have Code E carousels, which is great.

“We’ve got a whole new environment for the agencies to be able to process international passengers that we didn’t have before, and we now have boarding facilities, which we didn’t have in that protected environment.”

The international departures area, which is still being finalised, is planned to open before the launch of Jetstar services to Bali later this year. The airport will also see QantasLink A319 services to Perth starting in September.