Airport in Yulara
Ayers Rock Airport
(also known as
Connellan Airport
) (
IATA
:
AYQ
,
ICAO
:
YAYE
) is situated near
Yulara
, around 463 km (288 mi) (5 hrs drive) away from
Alice Springs
,
Northern Territory
, and 20 minutes drive from
Uluru / Ayers Rock
itself. An average of just under 300,000 passengers pass through this airport each year.
[4]
History
[
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]
The original Connellan Airport at Uluru was provided by
Edward Connellan
, who founded
Connellan Airways
in 1942. The development of tourism infrastructure adjacent to the base of Uluru / Ayers Rock that began in the 1950s soon created adverse environmental impacts. It was decided in the early 1970s to remove all accommodation-related tourist facilities from near the base of Uluru / Ayers Rock and re-establish them outside the national park. In 1975, a reservation of 104 km
2
(40 sq mi) of land beyond the national park's northern boundary, 15 km (9.3 mi) from Uluru, was approved for the development of a tourist facility, to be known as
Yulara
, along with a new airport. The new facilities became fully operational in late 1984.
On 6 August 2000, an
Ansett Australia
Airbus A320
arrived from
Auckland Airport
in New Zealand, carrying the
Olympic Torch
for its inaugural Australian leg ahead of the
Sydney Olympic Games
. From there, the torch was taken for a run around Uluru / Ayers Rock, followed by a formal reception.
In March 2010,
Virgin Australia
(at the time Virgin Blue) announced that the airline would start flying to Uluru / Ayers Rock. Flights later commenced from Sydney in August 2010 which also marked the airline's first flight into the red centre operated by Embraer E-190s. In September 2020 Virgin Australia revealed it had dropped seven regional destinations with one of them being Uluru / Ayers Rock.
In February 2013
Qantas
announced that
Jetstar
would take over Qantas mainline's Sydney service in April 2013. Jetstar later launched flights from
Melbourne Airport
in June 2014 and
Brisbane Airport
in August 2018. Qantas announced in November 2018 that Qantas mainline would return in April 2019 along with 2 news routes from
Adelaide Airport
and
Darwin Airport
; these flights haven't returned after being put on hold in 2020. In May 2021 Qantas revealed that the airline will resume its Sydney flights for the first time since April 2013 in March 2022.
QantasLink
also has flights from
Cairns Airport
and
Alice Springs Airport
.
Facilities
[
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]
Ayers Rock Airport has one main terminal for scheduled flights. The runway at Ayers Rock Airport is 2,599 m × 30 m (8,527 ft × 98 ft). It has a simple, single stage lighting system and
PAPI
. The largest aircraft currently serving Ayers Rock Airport are
Boeing 737-800
jetliners operated by
Qantas
and
Virgin Australia
.
[5]
Jetstar
currently operates
Airbus A320
jetliners on its flights into the airport.
[5]
Airlines and destinations
[
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]
See also
[
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]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
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]
Media related to
Ayers Rock Airport
at Wikimedia Commons
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Airports in bold are international airports
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