CAPA report that Darwin is the sixth largest secondary airport by total passenger movement (tenth overall).
An often sighted reason for Darwin's failure to develop as an international airport, particularly the failed Jetstar Hub, is high aviation charges. However CAPA's analysis shows that Darwin compares favourably to other Secondary airports. Darwin charges are comparable to Gold Coast Airport and considerably lower than Cairns. Of International airports Adelaide appears to offer the most attractive charges, backed by State Government incentives.
Darwin Airport had the chance to become a hub but that ship might have sailed
The airport handled 2 million passengers in 2013, 16.6% of which was international traffic.
The airport is the eighth busiest international airport in Australia, and has international services from Indonesia AirAsia, Jetstar Airways, Jetstar Asia, Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines and SilkAir. The airport grew its international traffic sharply in 2011, posting a year-on-year increase of 50.6% to 326,900 from a base of 217,000 the year prior. The airport handled 333,200 international passengers in 2013, a 77.4% increase over the 187,800 of 2008.
The expansion will also create more space for retail and food and beverage outlets. The terminal expansion is designed to double the airport’s peak hour capacity, including an increase of domestic peak arrivals capacity from 630 to 1300 passengers per hour while domestic departures will increase from 630 to 1750 per hour.
International arrivals capacity will double from 360 to 630 per hour, and departures will increase from 400 to 840 per hour. On that basis, Darwin Airport expects the terminal to handle close to 5 million passengers p/a prior to another expansion. The expansion works are scheduled to be completed upon installation of new aerobridges and way finding signage in late 2014.
This would have meant up to seven A320s and 280 crew being based in Darwin supporting “a strategic transport hub into near Asia.” Darwin Airport and Jetstar were ultimately unable to reach agreement over construction of the expanded facility. By the end of 2013, Jetstar had closed its base at Darwin and relocated the three A320s and 98 crew based there to a new hub at Adelaide Airport. Jetstar cited a poor operating environment including intense competition from SilkAir and AirAsia. Jetstar now operates a four times weekly Darwin-Bali service while Jetstar Asia operates four times weekly between Darwin and Singapore (also served by SilkAir).