Airlines pull planes out of Brisbane Airport ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s crossing

Airlines are deserting Brisbane Airport as Cyclone Alfred approaches, with flight cancellations soaring into the hundreds.

Brisbane Airport will be an airfield without aircraft by late Thursday, as airlines announce plans to suspend flights into the Queensland capital after midday and move aircraft out of Cyclone Alfred’s way.

Already, Gold Coast and Coffs Harbour Airport have shut up shop in response to mass flight cancellations, and Ballina Byron Bay Airport has also seen every flight axed for the second day in a row.

Brisbane Airport plans to remain open for scheduled flights as well as emergency and aeromedical services, even as airlines call it quits.

A Qantas spokeswoman said flight cancellations on Thursday were about making sure they were best prepared prior to the cyclone making landfall late Friday or early Saturday.

“This includes making sure our people and aircraft are safe,” said the spokesman.

International carriers have also cancelled flights into Brisbane on Thursday, with most axing services scheduled for Friday as well.

Total flight cancellations ahead of Cyclone Alfred in southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales are now in excess of 300, creating a logistical nightmare for airlines to get passengers where they needed to go.

Brisbane-based Alliance Airlines will send aircraft to its Rockhampton hangar for safekeeping during Cyclone Alfred.

The Qantas spokeswoman said they realised it was “a challenging time for customers, and as a result the airline was offering additional flexibility including travel credits and fee-free data changes to those with flight bookings to or from the impacted areas”.

Qantas, Virgin Australia and Alliance Aviation are also preparing to relocate any aircraft from Brisbane to other centres to ensure their safety during Cyclone Alfred.

Alliance managing director Scott McMillan said they would send aircraft to Rockhampton and move others into their hangar.

Any left in Brisbane would be weighed down with concrete blocks and chocked to ensure they were not sent on an unscheduled flight by Alfred’s destructive winds.

Bureau of Meteorology tracking shows Cyclone Alfred crossing the coastline into Brisbane by the weekend, after it slowed down on Wednesday night.

Experts have warned residents not to be complacent, and prepare for the destructive winds and heavy rains as well as possible.

Professor of atmospheric sciences at Monash University, Liz Ritchie-Tyo, said there was no doubt Alfred would cross the coast.

“Cyclones move about because of a few different factors but one of the biggest factors that pushes them in a particular direction is the large scale steering flow from the atmosphere, and for Alfred, it is being strongly steered by the winds from that very strong high pressure system that’s developed in the Tasman Sea,” said Professor Ritchie-Tyo.

“The winds to the north of that high are pushing it toward the west which is why it’s moving towards the coast and that’s not going to go away.”

She said the winds had lightened off, slowing Alfred’s movement, but it remained under the influence of the high pressure system which would keep moving it toward the coast.

Originally published as Airlines pull planes out of Brisbane Airport ahead of Cyclone Alfred’s crossing