Darwin International Airport


Darwin International Airport is a domestic and international airport serving Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. It is the eleventh busiest airport in Australia measured by passenger movements, with almost 1.8 million passengers travelling through in FY 2024. It is the main airport and the sole international airport serving the Darwin area.
The airport is located in Darwin's northern suburbs, from Darwin city centre, in the suburb of Eaton. It shares runways with the Royal Australian Air Force's RAAF Base Darwin.
Darwin Airport has an international terminal, a domestic terminal and a cargo terminal. Both of the passenger terminals have a number of shops and cafeterias.
Darwin was one of only two airfields in Australia that were listed as a Transoceanic Abort landing site for the Space Shuttle.

History

Early years

In 1919, when the England to Australia air race was announced, Parap Airfield was established in the suburb of Parap to act as the Australian terminal. It operated as two airports, a civilian airport and a military field.
The airfield frequently took hits from Japanese bombing through the Second World War, and was used by the Allies to project air power into the Pacific. The airport hosted Spitfires, Hudson Bombers, Kittyhawks, C-47s, B-24 Liberators, B-17 Fortresses and PBY Catalinas.
In 1945, the Department of Aviation made the existing Darwin military airfield available for civil aviation purposes. As a result, the civilian airport at Parap was closed down and civilian airport operations were combined with military operations at Darwin airport.
On 20 April 1954, Soviet spy Evdokia Petrova defected at Darwin Airport while she was being escorted out of Australia by KGB agents.
Between 1950 and 1974 Darwin Airport acted as the primary domestic and international airport for the Northern Territory and an important stop for airlines flying between Australia and Asia and onwards to Europe. UTA, BOAC, Alitalia and Air India were some of the airlines that had scheduled services to Darwin. However, the introduction of longer range aircraft in the 1970s meant that many airlines did not need to stop over in Darwin, and so they chose to cease services.
Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin in 1974 and flattened the city. The airport was used to ferry 25,628 people out of Darwin. Darwin Airport was extensively used to assist UN operations in East Timor from 1999, and to support medical evacuations following the 2002 Bali bombings.
A new passenger terminal with four aerobridges built by John Holland, opened in December 1991.

21st century

Expansion of the low-cost carrier business model in the Australian market during 2007–08 saw both Jetstar and Tiger Airways Australia express interest in developing Darwin Airport as a hub. With Darwin's proximity to Southeast Asia, Jetstar anticipated that it would be able to make flights using smaller aircraft, such as the Airbus A320 to fly anywhere within 4 to 5 hours from Darwin. Singapore-based Tiger maintained a route between Changi Airport and Darwin until 2008, with its Australian subsidiary operating domestically to Melbourne. However, plans for a Darwin hub failed to eventuate. Jetstar established a Darwin base, with flights to Singapore, Bali, and Tokyo via Manila but most of these routes would be withdrawn by May 2013.
In 2008, the Australian Infrastructure Fund, which holds 28.2% of Northern Territory Airports, announced that the airport would undergo a $60 million expansion to cater for growing passenger numbers. Among other improvements, it would provide a 65 per cent increase in terminal floor space.
During the 2008–09 financial year, a total of 1,538,938 passengers passed through Darwin International Airport which consisted of 188,530 international passengers and 1,350,408 domestic passengers.
In April 2009, Garuda Indonesia suspended the Denpasar service from Darwin after nearly 30 years of service, citing "economic reasons". The move drew protests from the Northern Territory government. The suspension left Darwin Airport without any non-Australian carriers flying there until late 2010 when Indonesia AirAsia started services from Bali to Darwin. Despite this, the number of passengers passing through the airport grew by 2% to 1,569,007 passengers during the 2009–10 financial year.
In December 2010, the Federal Government approved the Darwin Airport Master Plan, a 20-year blueprint guiding the airport's development as an international transit point between Europe, Asia and Australia. 2012 and 2013 saw a major boost for Darwin Airport when foreign carriers SilkAir, Indonesia AirAsia, Philippine Airlines and Malaysia Airlines started direct flights to Singapore, Bali, Manila and Kuala Lumpur respectively. However, the increased competition from these carriers forced Jetstar to abandon its base in Darwin and redeploy its aircraft to Adelaide instead. Only flights to Bali were retained; the Singapore route was taken over by Jetstar Asia with Singapore-based aircraft and crews.
On 9 May 2015, a major expansion of the terminal was officially opened. The $85 million expansion increased the floor area from to double the capacity of the airport at peak periods. Works enlarged the arrivals and departures areas, added four new domestic and two new international boarding gates, additional security screening areas, a larger check-in area and a new multi-use baggage reclaim area for both domestic and international arrivals. New Qantas and Virgin Australia lounges opened with the expansion as well as additional Duty Free and retail options.
In October 2021, Qantas confirmed that it would operate its flagship direct route from Australia to London via Darwin, with the Northern Territory city in place of their Perth hub until June 2022.
In January 2026, it is announced that TransNusa will launch an international flight to Lombok, Indonesia and the route was scheduled to be operate in late February.

Facilities

Darwin Airport offers scheduled flights to regional destinations in the Northern Territory, domestically throughout Australia and in Southeast Asia. Domestic and international services operate from a single terminal. Civilian operations are concentrated on the northern side of the airfield, where the main terminal building is located. Regional airline Airnorth has its head office and maintenance facilities on the airport property and Bristow Helicopters also maintain a base of operations to supporting the resources industry. There are two general aviation aprons north of the main terminal building.
The area south of runway 11/29 and adjacent to the Stuart Highway is occupied by RAAF Base Darwin and Darwin Aviation Museum. It is used predominately for military operations.
Darwin airport electricity needs are partially met by two photovoltaic solar arrays. Stage 1 covers six hectares near the eastern end of the main runway, generates up to 4.0MW of electricity, and opened on 5 August 2016. At the time of construction it was described as the largest airside photovoltaic system in the world. Stage 2 provides a further 1.5 MW, and opened in December 2016 near the general aviation apron on the western side of the airport.

Airlines and destinations

Operations

Total

YearDomesticInternationalTotal
1986360,28346,551406,834
1987365,64853,885419,533
1988399,48469,487468,971
1989409,94885,775495,723
1990302,21395,737397,950
1991403,42492,219495,643
1992474,65187,892562,543
1993514,01796,549610,476
1994593,277113,889707,166
1995685,619138,398824,017
1996789,875141,703931,578
1997827,226156,567983,793
1998834,575176,7071,011,282
1999856,519171,1561,027,675
2000904,051153,0701,057,121
2001905,598172,2901,077,888
2002834,821127,768962,589
2003895,86689,306985,172
2004989,33484,1061,073,440
20051,107,519103,2151,210,734
20061,102,924116,4541,219,378
20071,269,468134,2171,403,685
20081,388,973173,2431,562,216
20091,350,374188,5301,538,904
20101,360,078207,8251,567,903
20111,435,294252,2141,687,508
20121,716,536357,2102,073,746
20131,627,636313,0321,940,668
20141,750,829338,8262,089,655
20151,798,261292,2182,090,479
20161,809,562258,4672,068,029
20171,834,319284,1362,118,455
20181,808,425251,1812,059,606
20191,747,118235,2991,982,417
20201,256,812183,4581,440,270
2021909,59475909,669
20221,144,36347,7831,192,146
20231,631,970160,3311,792,301
20241,593,329188,3521,781,681
20251,627,703234,8311,862,534