Also referred to as Tullamarine Airport, Melbourne Airport is the major airport which serves the city of Melbourne in Australia. It is also categorized as the second busiest airport in Australia according to passenger counts in the recent years. The airport opened its doors to the public in the year 1970 to act at that time as the replacement for the old Essendon Airport. There are many good things to say about this airport in general.
For instance, Melbourne Airport is the only international among the four main airports that serve the larger Melbourne metropolis. Located, about 23 kilometers from the city, the airport has been able to serve various customers both domestic and international. Since it is located just adjacent to the Tullamarine suburbs, the airport has got its own post code. At that you can image how significant such an airport can be.
Many people have noted that the Melbourne Airport is strategically located to cater for the most travelled air route in the world which is the Melbourne-Sydney route. On the other hand, this route is the second busiest within the Asia-Pacific region. The airport runs flight operations for many different airlines. For instance, they have developed a package that caters for flights that traverse the entire Australia region. In addition, they also serve various destinations across the globe including as a minimum, Asia, Europe, North America and Oceania.
Many people love to come to Australia through Melbourne and therefore the location of the airport is well placed to capture the ever increasing number of international and domestic passengers both. There are also a couple of airlines that have made this airport their major service hub. These include Virgin Australia and Qantas. Tiger airways and Jet star airways make use if the airport as more of a home base.
Flight operations statistics as at August 2011 placed Melbourne Airport as the busiest airport in terms of export freight and the second busiest basing on import freight. It is also worth noting that in the domestic market, this airport handles more of domestic freight as opposed to many other airports within the region. The award winning airport has been expanding its services and terminals ever since inception. Today, they have four terminals of which one is an international terminal, two are domestic and the other one is budget terminal.
Ever since inception in the year 1950, the airport has seen lots of growth in terms of facilities and passenger numbers. For instance, at the start, the only used to serve a little over 10000 passengers. The numbers have however been increasing exponentially.
As the popularity of the airport grew, so did car hire services start to come in to serve the airport visitors and passengers. If you come to Australia through this airport, you can always be sure that you will get around the city easily through the use of the services of the many car hire companies. These companies are operated by natives who understand the region very well. You can still book their services if you need to know Melbourne better.
If you want hotel services and accommodation, there are hotels to offer you the kind of service you are looking for. The holiday inn, park royal, mantra tullamarine, and the ciloms hotels are just but a representation of some of the hotels that you can visit near the airport.