Melbourne Airport third runway
Melbourne Airport is Australia’s second busiest passenger airport, handling almost 35 million passengers and 245,000 aircraft movements in 2019. It is also Australia’s largest domestic air freight hub. The airport’s contribution to Gross State Product was $20 billion and directly employed 19,000 people within the estate.
Demand at the airport is increasing and, by 2046, the airport anticipates facilitating 83 million passengers and more than 429,000 aircraft movements.
In 2019, scheduled flight cancellations and delays were becoming increasingly frequent, and recovery from delays was becoming more difficult to achieve. With its existing two-runway system, the capacity of Melbourne Airport through the morning (from 7am) and in afternoon/evening peaks by is expected to be exceeded by 2026.
This capacity constraint will inhibit the efficient functioning of the airport, leading to significant delays for passengers and freight, increasing fuel costs for airlines, increasing environmental emissions and consequential disruption to the Australian aviation network.
The proposal proposes a third runway to meet increased demand at Melbourne Airport. The three-runway system could facilitate an additional 136,500 aircraft movements and enable an extra 23 million passengers to use the airport each year by 2046.
Melbourne Airport, in consultation with key aviation stakeholders, undertook a number of studies to investigate options for different orientations for a new runway, including north-south or east-west runways. Melbourne Airport’s preference is for the third runway to be developed in the north-south orientation.
Additional options of differing runway-lengths (in the north-south orientation) are being considered.
In the longer term, Melbourne Airport has been planned and protected to operate a four-runway system.
Proponent to complete business case development (Stage 3 of Infrastructure Australia’s Assessment Framework).
Melbourne Airport is currently developing a Major Development Plan for the third runway project in addition to undertaking a new statutory Master Plan 2022 for consideration by the Australian Government.
Refer to Infrastructure Glossary for terms and definitions.