How Brisbane’s $5 billion airport upgrade is changing how we travel

Brisbane Airport has only just unveiled the renderings of the planned 21st-century makeover of its international terminal as part of a $5 billion upgrade of its facilities, but Qantas is already increasing its international traffic out of the Queensland capital.

Artist’s impression of Brisbane Airport upgrades, with a cutaway view of the inner workings.

The airline has just launched a four-times-weekly service between Brisbane and Manila in the Philippines, operating on A330 aircraft and adding an annual 100,000 seats to the route.

This follows the start of a new Qantas service from Brisbane to Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila and the announcement that new flights between Brisbane and the Pacific Island nation of Palau will start soon. Qantas has also added an extra two flights a week to Singapore from Brisbane.

Qantas already flies to Manila from Sydney, but the Brisbane flights to the Philippine capital offer Queensland Qantas customers a direct route there, but also an alternative for the rest of the country. Qantas had previously flown Sydney-Brisbane-Manila, but cancelled that route around a decade ago.

The Brisbane-Manila flight time is seven hours and 45 minutes, while from Sydney it’s 8.5 hours (shorter going the other way).

An artist’s impression of the proposed security upgrade.

The South-East Asian archipelagic country is proving increasingly popular with Australian tourists, drawn to its islands, beaches and water activities, and its food and culture.

Australia also has a large community of people with Filipino heritage, one of the largest in the diaspora, estimated at more than 400,000 people, with most living in the eastern states.

In other good news for Brisbane International, American Airlines has launched a non-stop service from Dallas-Fort Worth to Brisbane, as part of a joint business partnership with Qantas. Brisbane is the second Australian destination for American Airlines, and the route, a codeshare with Qantas, is the longest by distance in both the airline’s global network and on Brisbane Airport’s growing network map.

The Project Sunrise economy-class seats.

The airport’s upgrade is being done in stages over 10 years, though screening upgrades are set to be complete next year, driven by the need to have state-of-the-art security screening equipment to meet Australian government standards by the end of 2025.

Meanwhile, Qantas is set to update its A330-200s – the aircraft used on the Brisbane-Manila route – installing the economy seats designed for the airline’s Project Sunrise ultra-long-haul flights in a rolling overhaul commencing in 2025.

They’ll come with larger entertainment touchscreens, new USB-C fast charging and Bluetooth audio connectivity which will allow passengers to use their own headphones. Business class will remain the same.

See qantas.com

The writer travelled as a guest of Qantas.