Adelaide Airport, with new terminal and hotel, handling eight million passengers a year under later curfew

Adelaide Airport gained a new $260 million domestic and international terminal in 2005.

Adelaide Airport Limited, who took on the long-term lease of the airport in 1998, embarked in 2003 on developing a $260 million multi-user integrated terminal, replacing the previous “temporary” domestic and international ones, with a new control tower.

The terminal (T1) infrastructure provided 14 aerobridges and the capacity to handle 3,000 passengers per hour. Another expansion followed in 2007. A multi-storey car park was opened in 2012 and walkway bridge and plaza in 2013.

Aircraft movements and passenger numbers have substantially increased to more than eight million a year. More than 7,480 tonnes of freight were exported via Adelaide Airport in 2013, up 11.4% on the previous year, with Singapore the most by volume and Switzerland the most by value.

The $50 million a 165-room seven-storey AturaAdelaide, Australia’s first hotel directly linked to a capital city terminal, was opened in 2019. A hotel for pets also opened in the airport precinct in 2017.

Adelaide Airport has also been an environmental leader with a significant rooftop solar panel system and a stormwater runoff trial with SA Water to improve airside greenery.

A 2014 master plan highlighted Adelaide Airport’s plans for growth over the next 20 years, including tripling the terminal’s size by 2044 and building several multi-storey office buildings in a new business area.

The growth of international and domestic flights through Adelaide Airport presents a challenge for its location only six kilometres from the Adelaide city centre and in the middle of the western suburbs.  The airport still operates under a 11pm-to-6am curfew on most flights, introduced in 2000.