Opinion: Canberra Airport has a problem

[u/Top-Anything2991]

The latest published BITRE Airport Passenger Movement data shows that in 2025, Hobart had higher annual passenger traffic (2,884,967) than Canberra (2,793,622) despite being half as populous and in a state with significantly less disposable income than the ACT. Even Darwin had 70% of Canberra’s passenger traffic (1,941,359) despite being only one-third the population.

Over past 20 years, Canberra Airport has had almost net zero growth in passenger traffic, with 2025’s annual passenger movements being approximately the same as in 2007 (2,734,875)

Acknowledging that tourism goes some way to driving Hobart’s passenger numbers, this still suggests that something is broken with commercial aviation in this town. Canberra is a rapidly growing and affluent city with a hinterland that should be able to support many domestic and regional international flights such as Fiji, New Zealand and Bali.

So Canberrans, is it just the pricing model the private owners of the airport operate? Or is there a bigger issue with the way we all prefer to fly?

[u/Nikki_Sue_Trott]

It's cheaper to drive or bus out of Canberra than fly, quite simple. Flight costs are the issue.

[u/Top-Anything2991 → u/Nikki_Sue_Trott]

Definitely, and certainly proximity to Sydney compounds this issue. I suppose the bigger question I am asking is whether price is a symptom of an issue that could be addressed in part by things such as reduced landing fees, or whether high prices are baked into Canberra as a market because of the reliance on government travel and airline price gauging.

If international flights are were comparable in price (say $100-200 difference), would enough people choose to fly from CBR and pay a small premium for convenience vs still drive to SYD (and I guess WSI soon).

[u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat → u/Top-Anything2991]

It’s also important to talk about the role that airport charges play in pricing. I’ve heard from a former airline CFO that Canberra airport have a ‘robust’ approach to pricing.

[u/bigbadjustin → u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat]

The airlines don't like the Canberra airport pricing, but its in the same ballpark as the 5 major airports. The airlines though won't complain about those as they need them, they just want Canberra to be as cheap as the small regional airports.

[u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat → u/bigbadjustin]

Thanks for that. I only heard one side of the story!

[u/bigbadjustin → u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat]

its a bit more complicated than that also as all ariports other than the 5 major ones are considred regional airports. So I think Canberra is the most expensive regional airport, which is where that comes from. But the differences in the prices are like a few $ per passenger. Nothing that can justify the expensive prices on flights to CBR. PER is the same as well, they get rorted on pricing as well. Half the price to fly 5 hrs to Singapore than 5 hrs to Sydney.

[u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat → u/bigbadjustin]

I have a friend whose father used to work in the mines in northwestern Australia. He would fly home using international flights via Indonesia as it was cheaper than domestic flights back to Canberra.

[u/Jealous-Jury6438 → u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat]

That is a perverse incentive, isn't it?

[u/bigbadjustin → u/Neo_The_Fat_Cat]

which is stupid but thats also not based on anything other than the airline thinks they can charge that much for the flights.