Upgrades to Brisbane Airport among promising forecasts for Australia’s domestic tourism industry

Brisbane Airport Chief Executive, Gert-Jan de Graaff (pictured) expects a full recovery for Australia’s domestic tourism in 2023 and predicts that when passengers travel in 2032, they will be experiencing a completely new state-of-the-art Brisbane Airport.

de Graaff has forecasted the full recovery of Australia’s domestic travel industry in 2023 with the forecast part of his upcoming keynote presentation at Flight Centre Corporate’s free hybrid travel conference ‘Illuminate 2022’ – which returns as an in-person event for the first time in three years.  

de Graaff is among several key thought leaders that will offer invaluable advice, insights and forecasts for business and the travel industry as a whole at Flight Centre Corporate’s annual Illuminate conference on 20th October. The complimentary hybrid event will take place in-person in Sydney’s The Venue at Alexandria and will be livestreamed nationally for interstate attendees.

Ahead of his presentation, de Graaff reveals that Australia is very well positioned for a full recovery of its tourism industry advising “Travel – leisure and business combined – is now at about 90% of pre-COVID levels and we believe that we will be back at 2019 levels in early 2023.  

“Airlines need time to restart – some countries are still closed or have restrictions – and we need to rebuild the confidence of passengers to get on flights again. However, I am confident that we will see, from 2025 onwards, volumes that will exceed 2019 levels.

“International travel has also picked up at a slower pace than domestic travel. Currently, we’re back to around 50% of pre-COVID levels.”  

The recovery of the tourism sector

While Brisbane Airport is seeing fewer corporates flying, de Graaff believes they will return strongly next year and adds “what we are seeing now is that people really want to travel.  

“They want to come to Australia and visit us for business and leisure. A lot of the corporates haven't seen their customers and colleagues for the last two and a half years and they're really keen to get on flights again, develop their businesses and seek new opportunities.”

de Graaff reveals that Brisbane Airport was able to shield itself from much of the capacity issues and disruptions at other domestic and overseas airports.  

“Fortunately, during COVID, we did make the conscious decision to not go to ‘rock bottom’ in terms of resourcing – we knew that the market would recover. Thankfully, given our foresight, we never saw wait times much longer than 20 minutes. From a global perspective, this is a great effort.”

A new Brisbane Airport will take shape ahead of the 2032 Games

In his Illuminate presentation, de Graaff will also reveal some of the exciting changes at Brisbane Airport, as well as promising forecasts in the lead-up to the 2032 Brisbane Games.

Ahead of Games de Graaff says new terminals will be critical noting “we are running out of domestic terminal capacity and will require additional international terminal capacity before the Games.  

“My biggest prediction is that, when passengers travel in 2032, they will be travelling through a completely new state-of-the-art Brisbane Airport, net zero, or even climate positive Scope 1 and 2, with new mass transport solutions to and from each terminal.”

Brisbane Airport also recently started rolling out new security screening equipment to streamline the process for international passengers.

de Graaff  advises “the new equipment has a lot of advantages, namely, that passengers can keep laptops and liquids in their bags at security checkpoints.  

“In the next few years, passengers will also see significant upgrades in our domestic terminal. We are planning to build a mezzanine where our new security checkpoint will be located.  

“We are implementing upgrades to allow passengers to move directly from our multi-level car park into the security checkpoint, offering a streamlined entrance into the terminal. A new baggage system will also be introduced, while self-service products and services, such as self-service check-in, are on the way.”  

de Graaff also says there are opportunities for the use of biometrics in other stages of the process at airports, for instance, during check-in.

“I’m foreseeing this level of implementation to occur in the next five to 10 years. However, it could come earlier because we know the technology is there.”  

Gert-Jan de Graaff will be presenting his insights at Illuminate held at The Venue, Alexandria on Thursday, 20th October.

Flight Centre Corporate’s annual Illuminate conference on 20th October is a complementary hybrid event taking place in-person in Sydney’s The Venue  Alexandria and will be livestreamed nationally for interstate attendees. 

Illuminate is Australia’s most anticipated corporate travel event, attracting high-calibre keynote speakers, including Australia’s top CEOs, thought leaders, futurists, and economists. This year, Illuminate will provide insights and advice for businesses on the path forward in a post-pandemic world, including future travel trends, emerging technologies, and strategies to enhance corporate travel programs. Alongside Gert-Jan de Graaff, Virgin Australia CEO and Managing Director Jayne Hrdlicka, and REX Airlines Deputy Chairman John Sharp are among the keynote speakers who will offer crucial insights for Australian businesses.