An open letter to Melbourne Airport CEO, Lorie Argus

"Have you ever considered spending at least a week in the international terminal to witness how diabolical the experience is for your clients and maybe come up with strategies to improve it?"

Dear Ms Argus,

Have you used your own airport lately? Do you think it’s fit for purpose? In terms of efficiency and amenity for passengers, what would you rate it out of 10? Would you give it, at most, a four? On a good day?

Have you used any overseas airports lately? Have you been struck by how most of them operate with a degree of competence we could only dream of in Melbourne? Would you be surprised to learn that most of the international airports I’ve used in the past 12 months, from Barcelona to Rotorua, Dakar to Denpasar – yes, even Denpasar! – put our home town point of arrival to shame?

To more specific matters I’ve observed during 11 visits to your airport so far this year: do you think security might be improved if staff didn’t bark orders at bewildered passengers? Do you think it might streamline the departures mess if all the security checkpoints were open at once? Likewise the so-called SmartGates for passport scanning? Or do you think transforming the terminal into a baffling labyrinth of cattle pens is the best answer to crowd management?

Have you ever wondered what returning passengers might think of the abysmal arrivals experience? Can you please explain the following recent incidents I’ve endured at Tullamarine?

Arrivals hall at Melbourne Airport.

Why do there always seem to be bottlenecks at the immigration kiosks? Is it because there aren’t near enough of them? And because some are always on the blink? Is that why the queues for the working kiosks are (in my experience) routinely 12 deep, with perhaps one harried staff member fielding questions from confused passengers?

I gather from recent reports that you’re keen to blame the Australian Border Force for the scarcity and malfunctions of the SmartGates but couldn’t you have planned things better – it’s literally your company’s job to manage the airport – instead of pointing the finger?

Why, during my recent hellish encounter with Melbourne International, was only one customs exit operating? Have you ever stopped to think how queues for the exit and crowds at baggage carousels might get tangled up and cause a scene so dystopian that your own staff can only stand by and stare dumbly at the unfolding dysfunction?

Qantas passengers queue for check-in and bag drop. Picture: NewsWire/Luis Enrique Ascui.

I note you’ve recently announced an MOU with Malaysia Airlines to increase flights to three a day but are you aware that when my MH flight arrived last month there was no airbridge available so we had to descend stairs and wait for buses in the cold drizzle? Can you imagine how depressing the queues were for the biometric scanners once we reached the terminal? And can you believe that when we eventually made it to the carousel our luggage still hadn’t arrived? Is 90 minutes from touchdown to taxi rank an acceptable processing time for passengers arriving at one of Australia’s major international gateways?

On that same morning, when staff announced luggage from Christchurch and Vietnam flights couldn’t be delivered due to “congestion” and “operational issues”, was this code for, “We don’t have anywhere near enough staff?” And was it merely symbolic of the spiralling chaos that every customer-feedback screen was offline that day?

Have you noticed how, since so many airport processes (check-in, bag drop, passport scanning etc) have been outsourced to passengers – people who have neither been trained nor are in the least bit qualified for the roles now forced on them – that the customer experience has gone down the toilet? With hindsight, can you appreciate there might be some flaws in this insane strategy?

Qantas passengers at bag drop. Picture: NewsWire/Luis Enrique Ascui.

No one would underestimate the challenges of restarting Melbourne’s international airport after Australia’s borders reopened fully in February 2022 but, more than three years later, can you explain why Tullamarine appears to be an utter fiasco? Are you short of staff? Short of ideas? Surely you’re not short of cash given Melbourne Airport increased its operating profit more than 60 per cent to $199 million last financial year?

Do you think enough money and effort has been invested into Australia’s busiest 24/7 terminal to cope with the amount of people now using it? As passenger numbers soared to record highs in December last year and again in January, did you ever feel the situation was out of control?

Do you think your company could maybe pare back some of the dividends it’s shovelling to shareholders and invest them instead in new hirings and technology?

A Singapore Airlines plane being prepared for boarding.

When you put out a media release late last year stating that record growth in traveller numbers “highlighted the need for airports to take a long-term approach to infrastructure planning”, did you realise that meant Melbourne? Do you think it’s wise to open a third runway (slated for 2031) when your company appears to struggle to manage passenger loads of the current two?

Have you ever considered spending at least a week in the international terminal to witness how diabolical the experience is for your clients and maybe come up with strategies to improve it? I think that would be a good idea.

Sincerely,

Kendall Hill, Disgruntled Customer

Failing the test

Tullamarine is a recurring nightmare but my experiences at Sydney and Brisbane terminals haven’t been a heap better. All excel at soul-crushing queues, baggage mishandling and chronic staff shortages. Our major international airports are anything but world-class.

Originally published as An open letter to Melbourne Airport CEO, Lorie Argus