Avalon Airport defends significant price hike to carparking fees

Avalon Airport has defended imposing a 65 per cent increase to carparking fees, blaming an increase in the price of expenses to run the airport. VOTE IN OUR POLL.

Avalon Airport CEO Tony Brun has defended increasing carparking prices. He says Avalon Airport has had significant increases to its expenses over the last few years. Picture: Alan Barber

Avalon chief Tony Brun has defended the airport’s massive parking fee hikes, laying the blame on rising business costs.

Parking prices at the airport rose significantly from September 1, with some packages increasing by nearly 65 per cent.

Geelong Advertiser readers labelled the price hike “ridiculous”, “unbelievable”, “absolute greed” and a “money grab”, with some saying they would choose Melbourne Airport instead.

Avalon Airport now charges $49 to park outdoors for a day, the same price charged for undercover terminal parking at Melbourne Airport.
In March, daily parking at Avalon was advertised at $30.

Mr Brun said the team worked hard to keep parking costs as low as possible.

“It’s important to remember that we have not had an increase to our parking for many years which is something we are proud of,” Mr Brun said.

“To understand the increase and give context to the change, we have had significant increases to our expenses to run the airport as a whole over the last few years.

“These expenses include things like utilities, other costs of doing business and fuel.

“We must rebalance and have been very considered in our approach to these changes.”

Avalon Airport’s carparking fees have significantly increased. Picture: Alan Barber

Mr Brun said Avalon was the “most competitive at terminal airport parking across Victoria” and had the “most convenient airport parking”.

City of Greater Geelong Deputy Mayor Anthony Aitken urged tourism providers to be wary of the impact price hikes could have on tourism.

“Tourism is still in recovery from Covid, especially international tourism and as chair of our city’s economic and tourism portfolio I would encourage all tourism providers to be mindful that major price rises do have an undesirable impact on attracting tourists,” Mr Aitken said.

Wallington resident and frequent flyer Matthew Hindson said he paid $57 for four days of parking on August 24.

He said his bill was $94 for same period just two weeks later, an increase of almost 65 per cent.

The airport has faced difficulties in recent years and has been unable to secure an international carrier since losing its deal with AirAsia in the wake of the pandemic.

Mr Brun said in August the airport was working to restart international flights.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission was unable to comment on the price increases as its monitoring role only covers Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Melbourne airports.

Originally published as Avalon Airport defends significant price hike to carparking fees