Future Aviation: Brisbane Airport new runway to host fun run

It’s your first and last chance to touch the tarmac on Brisbane Airport’s new runway, with a special event ahead of the opening.

BRISBANE Airport will open the gates of its new $1.3 billion runway to the public with a massive weekend festival and fun run down the tarmac before it takes its first flights in the middle of next year.

The free events will have space for 25,000 at the festival on the Saturday and 8000 run, walk, roll or stroll spaces in the fun run on the Sunday, airport events organiser Jacinta Messer said.

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“We’re going to have food trucks, entertainment, fun things for the kids to do and also some aviation-themed surprises,” Ms Messer said.

“Then on the Sunday, we’re going to host a 5km fun run on the runway for about 8000 people, because we know everyone loves to run on something big and new.

“It doesn’t matter how fit you are, or how fast you can do the 5km, if you run, roll or stroll with a pram, we just really want the people of Brisbane to come out to the airport and explore their new runway.”

The epic organisational challenge has already begun to transform what is an enormous runway into a festival spot and fun run course.

“We’ve got a bus fleet of 80 over the weekend, over 350 staff, helpers and volunteers, more than 6000 litres of water, more than 200 toilets and about 4km of fencing,” Ms Messer said.

The new Brisbane Airport runway takes shape.

“Register online well in advance and then we’ll bus everyone out here from a staging site.

“We really want to make the day entertaining and make it memorable.”

The airport will be announcing the final date early next year, along with details of how to register.

Later this month, more than 1000 of the most influential aviation industry members will be escorted out to see the runway for “Sangria at Sunset” as part of the international airports slots conference.

Future Aviation, a two-week series in The Courier-Mail and The Sunday Mail in partnership with Brisbane Airport, Tourism and Events Queensland, Brisbane Marketing and PwC, has highlighted the opportunities of the new runway.

It is scheduled to open in the middle of next year, offering a massive jobs and industry boost that will be felt across the state.