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Speaker 1: Three sixty with Katie Wolf. Join the conversation with Katie Wolf.

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Speaker 1: You are our eyes and ears in the territory Mixed

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Speaker 1: one oh four point nine.

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Speaker 2: We know that there is now a new direct flight

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Speaker 2: between Darwin and Camber. It took off well yesterday and

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Speaker 2: joining us on the line to tell us a little

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Speaker 2: bit more about the situation. NT Airport's Development Group Chief

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Speaker 2: Executive Tony Edmondston, Good morning, Tony.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie Tony.

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Speaker 1: How did we go yesterday with this first flight? Oh?

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Speaker 3: Look, isn't isn't it fabulous to be a territory And

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Speaker 3: right now, you know, the weather's great, the tourism industry

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Speaker 3: is booming, and we've got plenty of events and you

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Speaker 3: know we get now a chance to bring a few

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Speaker 3: people from Camber up directly without having to route via

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Speaker 3: other ports.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, what's the demand like this for this roach?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? So looking, yesterday's flight was about seventy percent full.

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Speaker 3: And the big game changer and this is playing out

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Speaker 3: across Australia is Quantus and a few other airlines are

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Speaker 3: moving to a smaller, skinnier aircraft and that means the

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Speaker 3: economic of sort of moving seventy or eighty people on

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Speaker 3: a flight. Is much better than what it has historically been.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it is good news.

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Speaker 2: It's certainly good news for us as territorians to be

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Speaker 2: able to travel around a little bit more directly.

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Speaker 1: How many days a week will this service operate?

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Speaker 3: So over the dry season this will be five days

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Speaker 3: a week. And if you think sort of how this

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Speaker 3: will sort of actively play out is you know, it's

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Speaker 3: dry season up here, which is fantastic for the Southerners

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Speaker 3: to come north, and it's you know, the ski fields

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Speaker 3: and nations capital during the same time for us to

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Speaker 3: head south. So when wet season comes around, that'll probably

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Speaker 3: drop back to three times.

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Speaker 2: A week, okay, but it will still continue to run

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Speaker 2: throughout the wet season at this stage as well.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, this is this is a permanent route that will

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Speaker 3: sort of ramp up during our peak tourist season and

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Speaker 3: then you have still continue to service during the wet.

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Speaker 2: And Tony, How are things going at the moment, We'll

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Speaker 2: firstly with the Darwin Airport, how's the capacity.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, we've got a few teating challenges, but we're

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Speaker 3: probably about eighty five to ninety percent of pre COVID

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Speaker 3: level from a domestic capacity perspective. Wow, forward looking, you know,

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Speaker 3: in the next couple of months, you know, subject to

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Speaker 3: hotspots and other bits and pieces, we expect that to

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Speaker 3: be sort of one hundred and five to one hundred

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Speaker 3: and ten percent of pre COVID. So we're pretty busy, Tony.

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Speaker 2: Would you have ever anticipated, you know, at the start

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Speaker 2: of COVID, when things were as frightening as they were,

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Speaker 2: that you would be at this point so soon after.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Typically when we're going through those events, you sort

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Speaker 3: of say, what's the best case scenario we could possibly consider?

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Speaker 3: And I think we're playing it right now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's quite unbelievable and it is absolutely wonderful to

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Speaker 2: see that.

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Speaker 1: You know, Darwin is just a buzz ah.

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Speaker 3: Look at it again. You know if you look outside

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Speaker 3: that the sky is blue at thirty two in the

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Speaker 3: day and nineteen at night and there is no better

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Speaker 3: part of Australia right now.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Now, how are things in Alice Springs, because I know

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Speaker 2: obviously you've got the airport there as well.

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Speaker 1: How are their numbers going?

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Speaker 3: No, sore, they're a bit so we're sort of eighty

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Speaker 3: to eighty five of pre COVID. They're sitting just by

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Speaker 3: lowered around seventy five percent of pre covide, so they're going, okay, obviously,

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Speaker 3: you know there's a desire to hit the natural wonders

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Speaker 3: when you can't go overseas.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right.

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Speaker 2: And Tony, how do you manage I know that it

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Speaker 2: can be difficult when these hot spots are declared. Is

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Speaker 2: it getting a little bit easier to deal with that

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Speaker 2: type of thing?

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Speaker 3: It's becoming more routine. I wouldn't necessarily jump to it's easier,

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Speaker 3: because you know, they all throw up their own challenges,

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Speaker 3: particularly when aircraft are in the air when there's a

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Speaker 3: hot spot declared. Yeah, you know, we're becoming better at

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Speaker 3: it and more agile at it, so you know, you

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Speaker 3: just adapt to the change on the day.

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Speaker 2: And it's obviously quite difficult as well, you know, particularly

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Speaker 2: for those passengers who are pretty upset, you know, if

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Speaker 2: they're on a flight and then they find out that

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Speaker 2: they've got to go into quarantine.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look at that. You know again, you know for

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Speaker 3: all of our staff, and I know that Indiant Health

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Speaker 3: team is sort of at the front line as well.

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Speaker 3: You know, there's some challenges when people jump on planes

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Speaker 3: expecting to sort of walk out and enjoy the territory

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Speaker 3: and then quickly turned around. Yeah, you know, we know

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Speaker 3: where's a you know, where as a destination need to

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Speaker 3: be empathetic to when those things happen.

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Speaker 2: And Tony a question that I'm just thinking of as

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Speaker 2: we're on the line there. I know that a couple

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Speaker 2: of or a few weeks ago we'd spoken to the

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Speaker 2: Health Minister and she had said that down the track

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Speaker 2: we would be in a situation where some of those

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Speaker 2: international repatriation flights would not be going through the Raft

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Speaker 2: base or not be going through the Raft side of

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Speaker 2: the airport, i should say, and at some point transitioning

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Speaker 2: through the Darwin Airport. Has there been much movement in

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Speaker 2: that space.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Look, we've been working maybe for probably two or

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Speaker 3: three months now with both the federal government and the

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Speaker 3: NT government on how we can help facilitate this. And

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Speaker 3: the context of this, Cadie is, you know, we know

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Speaker 3: that there's a lot of international Australians that are sort

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Speaker 3: of stranded overseas at the moment, just trying to come home.

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Speaker 3: You know, we know there's restrictions around Australia around the

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Speaker 3: sheer number of people that can come on flights into

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Speaker 3: Australia and if we can do a little party in

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Speaker 3: you know, bringing more people home, and that's that's where

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Speaker 3: this sort of comes to, then will help in any

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Speaker 3: way we can. Right having said that, we've got a

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Speaker 3: lot of work to do to ensure that there's clear

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Speaker 3: separation between potentially international arrivals and our domestic passengers and

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Speaker 3: that there's no way of risk of transfer. So that

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Speaker 3: means some physical barriers have to be constructed, some other

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Speaker 3: works and air conditioning changes. That just takes time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and it sounds like it could be expensive work,

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Speaker 2: but hopefully something that the FEDS will be picking the

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Speaker 2: bill up for.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, well in parts. But again, you know, we look

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Speaker 3: at it and say, you know, as a broader corporate citizen,

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Speaker 3: we you know, we have a role to play in

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Speaker 3: helping bring Ossie's home. That might cost us a little

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Speaker 3: bit of money through that process, but it's the right

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Speaker 3: thing to do. We also need to make sure that

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Speaker 3: we don't put other territory ins at risk, so you know,

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Speaker 3: there's a balance between the two. Yeah, you know, we're

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Speaker 3: not jeopardizing safety at all, and you know, we know

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Speaker 3: when the works are completed, will do a thorer order

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Speaker 3: to make sure that it is safe before we allow

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Speaker 3: internationals on our side.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and Tony, no doubt some people listening will be

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Speaker 2: thinking to themselves, Oh, I feel a little bit concerned

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Speaker 2: about that. I mean, what is your message for those

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Speaker 2: that are maybe feeling worried that it heightens the risk

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Speaker 2: of a spread of COVID.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so we're again there'll be physical barriers between and

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Speaker 3: I don't mean sort of soft tensile barriers. There's walls

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Speaker 3: being constructed, there's different pathways, there's different econditioning, so there's

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Speaker 3: no way of interaction between international and domestic through that process.

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Speaker 3: If it makes people feel any more comfortable. You know,

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Speaker 3: I'm sitting at the airport and I'm mixing in and

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Speaker 3: around that term at all every day. So you know,

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Speaker 3: if anyone is probably most exposed, it's myself and my team,

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Speaker 3: and you know, we're not prepared to put them at

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Speaker 3: risk anywhere.

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Speaker 1: And Tony, has that work already started or is it

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Speaker 1: far off?

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Speaker 3: Oh, we've started doing some things. There's a lot more

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Speaker 3: work to be done around getting it actually right, you know,

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Speaker 3: looking in I think that's sort of probably five or

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Speaker 3: six weeks of work. So you know, the earliest we're

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Speaker 3: probably looking at now is around the end of July

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Speaker 3: from a timeframe. Again, you know, we just need to

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Speaker 3: make sure that it's done appropriately and tested and that

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Speaker 3: you know, again that the ventilation systems are working the

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Speaker 3: way they should work.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, Well, Tony Edmondston, the.

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Speaker 2: CEO of the NTI Airport's Development Group, We really appreciate

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Speaker 2: your time today.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for having a chat with us. Thanks Katie,

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Speaker 1: you are listening to.

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Speaker 2: Mix one oh four point nine and yeah, how fascinating

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Speaker 2: that we're already at eighty five between eighty five to

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Speaker 2: ninety percent of pre COVID in terms of capacity out

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Speaker 2: there at the airport. It's pretty phenomenal when you think

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Speaker 2: about it. And you know, when we look at what

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Speaker 2: situation we're in a year ago compared to now, it

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Speaker 2: is quite amazing that we've got that many people coming

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Speaker 2: to the Northern Territory at the moment. And you know,

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Speaker 2: and then when you take out places like Victoria for

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Speaker 2: the last couple of weeks, in Melbourne for the last

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Speaker 2: few weeks, and even the situation in New South Wales

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Speaker 2: preventing or stopping some people from wanting to travel it's

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Speaker 2: wonderful to see the airport operating at that capacity. Now,

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Speaker 2: there are a lot of you getting in contact about

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Speaker 2: these speeding fines. I've got one here, it says Katie,

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Speaker 2: what about the points lost and those that lost their

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Speaker 2: license even their jobs because of a loss of license?

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Speaker 1: Good, very good point.

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Speaker 2: Another one here from Mark in twee Hi, Katie, regarding

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Speaker 2: those speeding fines. I'd like to know how and exactly

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Speaker 2: when they found out about the incorrect calibrations. In addition,

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Speaker 2: I call bs on money and points not getting reimbursed.

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Speaker 2: Sounds like too much work for them as all the

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Speaker 2: info is on their system, says Mark. Yeah, that is

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Speaker 2: not good to hear at all. And yeah, look Mark,

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Speaker 2: I think this sounds like there's going to be more

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Speaker 2: to this story, no doubt about it.

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Speaker 1: There's another one here.

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Speaker 2: This is in relation to the airport, and it said, well,

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Speaker 2: there was a one hour forty five minute wait for

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Speaker 2: all flights arriving yesterday. My old dad waited on the

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Speaker 2: tarmac for forty five minutes, then another hour. Terrible, I

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Speaker 2: waited two hours for him, says that text. I'm sorry

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Speaker 2: to hear that. That is not good news, particularly for

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Speaker 2: your Dad, your elderly dad. I'm not sure exactly what

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Speaker 2: the reasoning is behind that. I know, when we caught

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Speaker 2: up with the Transport Workers Union just a little while ago,

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Speaker 2: they had said that it was because there was changes

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Speaker 2: with quantas with their baggage handling and things like that.

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Speaker 2: But I'm not one hundred percent sure that is something

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Speaker 2: that we can certainly take as a question to ask