$70m Adelaide Airport runway upgrade update as part of $1bn pipeline of improvements

A $70m upgrade of Adelaide Airport’s main runway is past the halfway mark – the first project in a $1bn pipeline of improvements.

A $70m upgrade of Adelaide Airport’s main runway is past the halfway mark – the first project in a $1bn pipeline of developments designed to improve the safety and travel experience for thousands of passengers who pass through the precinct each day.

Since October, dozens of workers have been working through each night – during the airport’s curfew from 11pm to 6am – to gradually remove and then resurface sections of the main 3.1km runway and taxiways.

The resurfacing requires significantly more asphalt than the amount used to reseal roads, with more than 60,000 tonnes required to cover 413,000sq m of runway and taxiways – the same amount of asphalt that would be used to reseal a 40km stretch of road.

Every 57mm a groove is cut into the runway surface to improve the surface texture.

Runway lights, last installed in 1994, were also replaced in December with more efficient LED lighting.

An artist's impression representing Adelaide Airport's Vision for 2050 ambition. Picture: Supplied by Adelaide Airport

Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said runway resurfacing was required every 10-15 years, and the current upgrade was on track to be completed by August.

“Every night at the moment we’re closing the main runway during the curfew and we’re undertaking a massive re-sheet – it’s something we have to do every 10 years to replace the integrity of our runway system,” he said.

“It’s expensive and time consuming and there’s a lot of risk to manage.”

During the resurfacing work, the airport’s cross runway, running southeast to northwest, is being used for the small number of freight and emergency aircraft that are allowed to operate during the airport curfew.

Another concept image of the project. Picture: Supplied by Adelaide Airport

The project kicks off a $1bn pipeline of investment – described as the airport’s “single biggest ever capital investment program” – earmarked for the wider airport precinct over the next five years.

Mr Cox said more than $300m would be spent on terminal-related projects over the next four years, starting with security upgrades later this year, followed by expansions of the terminal to the north and south, to cater for forecast demand increases.

“If you look at our Network Vision, we have to expand our airport to be able to accommodate all of that, and in the next five years we have a high degree of confidence of the growth that we expect to see,” he said.

Adelaide Airport how it looks today. Picture: Brenton Edwards

And an idea of how parts of it could look in coming years. Picture: Supplied by Adelaide Airport

“We have to roll out the infrastructure that’s required to accommodate that growth so that we can keep being known for our brand – being seamless, connected and easy.”

A $500m investment in aviation infrastructure projects over the next five years also includes an expanded check-in hall, a second kerb-side pick-up and drop-off lane and more space for aircraft parking.

A new ground-level car park for medium-term parking between the existing multistorey car park and the Bunnings and Ikea stores is also expected to open later this year.

Another $500m will go towards property developments across the wider airport precinct, including a freight and logistics hub east of the main runway.

Post-Covid boom as exports take flight

The sky’s the limit when it comes to freight opportunities exported from Adelaide Airport as the bounce back from the Covid shutdowns continues.

From fish swim bladders to live lobsters, chilled kingfish and premium lamb heading for dinner tables across the globe, the world is SA’s export oyster – oh, and oysters are exported too.

Freight logistics firm Airway is SA’s licenced and registered export handler of perishable goods.

Spokesman Adam Wright said the company has seen strong growth in outgoing freight as airlines return to Adelaide, with export destinations led by Singapore, the US and Hong Kong.

“We do a lot of kingfish, lamb carcasses, boxed meats, dairy, mussels, oysters, lobsters, abalone, some pippis – there is a lot of demand,” he said.

Adam Wright from Airfreight logistics firm Airway at Adelaide Airport. Picture: Ben Clark

“It has definitely improved since the worst of Covid, a lot more carriers coming to Adelaide means an increase in space, so more opportunities for the volumes we produce in SA.”

Airway also assists with transport of pets in aeroplane cargo holds.

Airway worker Nathan Purdy with Lucky the cat at Adelaide Airport. Picture: Ben Clark

The return of daily flights by Emirates from October includes capacity for 14 tonnes of cargo per flight, totalling 196 tonnes weekly between Dubai and Adelaide with an estimated value of $98m per year.

Last year FedEx Express which operates 25 weekly cargo flights in and out of Adelaide Airport opened significantly large facilities.

Peter Langley, vice president, FedEx Express Australasia said: “The enhanced capabilities of the new facility will benefit local businesses looking to tap into the international marketplace and support the growing demand for e-commerce in the South Australia region.”

Adelaide Airport’s masterplan aims for overall freight exports of 146,000 tonnes by 2039, partly by stopping “leakage” where SA export go via Melbourne or Sydney due to lack of cargo capacity.

This plan also projects an increase in passenger movements from 8.5 million to 19.8 million, associated jobs growth from 22,810 to 56,178 and economic contribution from $2.9bn to $7.4bn.

Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox said South Australia is known for having fresh, clean, green and high quality produce.

“I think now as borders have reopened, and people have started to reconnect into different markets, some of those markets emerging with the propensity to pay are very keen for product and quality that’s coming out of South Australia,” he said.

“Lamb, kingfish, mussels, oysters and the like are some of the biggest movers through our cold stores at Adelaide Airport.”

Mr Cox noted freight moving direct from Adelaide has suffered with the lack of international wide body passenger flights.

“Over 90 per cent of airfreight is travelling in the belly of passenger aircraft, and freight of any significant volume has to travel in those wide body aircraft,” he said.

“Without Emirates, China Southern and Cathay we’re relying on Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore to be doing the heavy lifting on freight out of Adelaide. So that’s meant a lot of our exporters have to put freight in trucks and send them to Sydney and Melbourne.

“We call it leakage, when goods from a South Australian exporter have to go out of an airport that’s not Adelaide Airport.”

Adelaide Airport managing director Brenton Cox. Picture Dean Martin

Covid’s hangover means last year 70 per cent of South Australian exporters were accessing overseas markets out of interstate airports, mainly Sydney and Melbourne, up from 41 per cent pre-Covid.

“So they’re having to put goods on trucks, send them to Sydney and Melbourne and ship it off,” Mr Cox said.

“Only 30 per cent of international airfreight exports is coming out of Adelaide Airport for South Australian exporters.

“That’s clearly a dynamic we at least want to start to shift back to the pre-Covid levels, and getting China Southern, Cathay, Emirates back in the sky will really help turn the dial on that.

“Ultimately what exporters want is good value, timeliness and reliability – the last thing that you want, particularly for perishable goods, to be lying around in an airport.”