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Next Stop at Gold Coast Airport (OOL)


Gold Coast Airport (Coolangatta Airport) (IATA: OOL, ICAO: YBCG) is an international Australian airport located at the southern end of the Gold Coast, 25 km (16 mi) south of Surfers Paradise and approximately 100 km (62 mi) south of Brisbane. The entrance to the airport is situated in the suburb of Bilinga near Coolangatta. The runway itself straddles the state border of Queensland and New South Wales. During summer these states are in two different time zones. The airport operate with the Brisbane time during the summer period. In 2016, Gold Coast Airport exceeded 6 million passengers. It is the sixth-busiest airport in Australia, and the busiest outside a state capital, in terms of passengers, and eighth-busiest in aircraft movements. It is also the third-fastest-growing airport in the country.

Until 1999 the airport was known as Coolangatta Airport. This is an Aboriginal word meaning "Place of Good View". It originally consisted (1936) of three grass strips with the intention of only providing an emergency landing ground for airmail aircraft transiting between Brisbane and Sydney. Passenger flights took off for the first time in 1939 using the then grassy field of the current Coolangatta site. Regular services were started by Queensland Airlines and Butler Air Transport after the Second World War. Ansett started its own services in 1950 using DC-3s, while Trans Australia Airlines did the same in 1954 using DC-3s, too, as well as DC-4s and Convairs to link other Australian cities. By 1958 the taxiways and runways were fully paved, with the latter upgraded a decade later to allow jet operations with DC-9 and L-188 Electra aircraft to begin. The current terminal, entitled Eric Robinson Building, was officially opened in 1981 by Acting Prime Minister Douglas Anthony, when at the time more than 650,000 passengers were using the airport. The following year, the main runway was lengthened to 2,042 m (6,699 ft), thus permitting the use of wide-body jets by the two domestic operators Ansett Australia and Trans Australia Airlines and their Boeing 767 and Airbus A300 respectively on flights from Melbourne and Sydney.

In 1990 the airport welcomed its first international charter service from New Zealand, and by 1999 Air New Zealand low-cost subsidiary Freedom Air started scheduled no-frills service from Hamilton, New Zealand with Boeing 737s. In 2007 the airport celebrated the arrival of AirAsia X, which began services directly to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Tiger Airways Australia, which started services to Melbourne. Subsequently, the airport has start flights with Jetstar to Tokyo Narita. Services to New Zealand increased as well with Jetstar, Air New Zealand flying to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. 2010 saw Jetstar announce the airport as its newest hub, increased services to Cairns. Currently flying also fly Scoot to Singapore (SIN) and Hong Kong Airlines to Hong Kong "Chek Lap Kok" (HKG) twice a week.

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