Mayor Phill Stone said the airline was “ignoring the facts of the situation” and added the business’ proposed terminal renovations would have been unfeasible.
Hainan Airlines has restarted twice-weekly Airbus A330 return services between Melbourne and Haikou, meaning almost all eight of the mainland Chinese carriers that operated to Melbourne before COVID-19 have come back to the airport. The flights will expand capacity between Melbourne and China by more than 1200 seats per week.
The disruption follows Airservices Australia, which oversees air traffic control, switching the country’s biggest airport off parallel runway operations on Friday as winds peaked at 37km an hour.
Airservices Australia, which oversees air traffic control, said the decision to switch to single runway operations was not due to a lack of controllers but purely as a safety precaution.
Gate 3 at the airport will handle all Rex and Link Airways flights with fewer than 40 passengers, which do not require security screening, after federal funding for screening processes at regional airports ends on July 1. Qantas passengers will continue to use the screened departure gate.
Tom Ganley, who has almost 35 years of airport experience including as a director and former chair of the Australian Airports Association (AAA), will take up the position at Parafield from 1 July.