History of Hobart Airport
On 23 June 1956 the current Hobart Airport site was officially opened when the first scheduled flight to Hobart landed after 2.5 hours from Melbourne via Western Junction.
In its first full year of operation, just over 120,000 passengers and just under 12,000 tonnes of freight passed through the Hobart Airport, making it the fifth busiest airport in Australia at the time.
During the 1960s air traffic grew considerably, and by 1971 passenger traffic for the Hobart Airport was forecast to reach 200,000 passengers. Passenger traffic grew faster than forecast, with numbers reaching 282,000 by 1973.
In 1974 an upgrade of Hobart Airport was announced, this involved demolition of the existing terminal replaced by a new terminal with a capacity of 3500 passengers.
By 1976, 87% of people travelling to Tasmania were arriving by air and 408,000 passengers passed through Hobart Airport.
An international terminal development was completed in 1983; further international developments were undertaken and opened in 1985 by the then Prime Minister.
In 1988, the ownership and operation of Hobart Airport was transferred from the Federal Department of Aviation to the Federal Airports Corporation. The change in ownership brought a stronger commercial focus and saw some non-aviation related development on the airport land.
By 1996 there were 19 businesses operating on the airport providing on-site employment for 400 people.
In 1998 the Federal Government privatised Hobart International Airport, which was then sold.
With the collapse of Ansett in 2001, Hobart Airport lost 40% of its airline capacity; from this moment there was action from other carriers to put additional capacity into the Hobart market and increase the number of flights to Hobart. Qantas, Virgin Blue and Jetstar picked up capacity and continued to grow the number of seats over the coming years. The introduction of Tiger Airways added further seats into the market.
During 2004 work commenced on a refurbishment of the Hobart Airport terminal building.
Work continues today in a range of areas and the 2009 Master Plan outlines the plans for development over the next 20 years.