Hobart Airport in “fruitful” talks with SQ, Cathay Pacific

By Andrew Curran.

The CEO of Hobart Airport (HBA) says that “fruitful” talks are underway with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific about flights to the Tasmanian capital.

Norris Carter told a February 23 Australian Government Senate Committee hearing in Tasmania that the recently extended runway makes the flights economically viable.

The committee is examining the state of Australia’s aviation sector and whether its delivers reliable and affordable services to rural, regional and remote communities.

Hobart, as a capital city airport, isn’t rural, regional or remote, and Norris prefers to compare his airport to Adelaide (ADL), Cairns (CNS), and Canberra (CBR) rather than Tasmania’s other airports.

“We’re talking to Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific about flying (to Hobart) now that we’ve upgraded the runway,” he said.

Hobart's new runway able to handle bigger jets

Recent work saw Hobart Airport’s sole runway strengthened and extended to 2,727 metres – long enough to accommodate Code E aircraft like A330s, B787s, and B777s.

Currently, Hobart’s only international service are seasonal Air New Zealand A321neo flights to Auckland.

Norris says the biggest problem for the airlines is the availability of aircraft.

“All the airlines are waiting for new aircraft to arrive,” he said. “It’s very competitive. We’re competing with almost every other airport in the Asia-Pacific region for that aircraft capacity. But we are having fruitful conversions, and those conversations are progressing.”

Neither Cathay Pacific nor Singapore Airlines responded to a request for comment.

Hobart is Tasmania’s primary entry point for airline passengers, with the airport handling around two-thirds of all air passenger movements in and out of the state.

According to Aero South Pacific’s Hobart Airport Brief, over 2.6 million passengers moved through the airport in the 12 months to September 30, 2025. Carter expects that number to rise to 3.5 million by 2030.

The CEO says Hobart Airport doesn’t “encounter significant obstacles in attracting and maintaining sustainable services.” He said while some routes to and from Hobart are thin and seasonal, once established, they usually prove “sustainable and competitive in the long term, in line with the size of each market.”

Responding to questioning from Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie, Carter also said there was the opportunity to secure some cargo charters over the summer, shipping items "like lobsters and cherries into Hong Kong and China.”

But he said this was a sideshow to the “real opportunity,” which was putting cargo into the belly-holds of passenger aircraft, and flying both out together on the same aircraft.

“The economics of those two, both passenger and freight together on the same aircraft, are quite compelling,” Carter said.

The CEO says these flights would pump around AUD122 million (USD86.3 million) annually into the Tasmanian economy, subject to variables such as aircraft size and flight frequencies.

QantasLink base closure no financial impact on Hobart Airport

The Senate Committee is ostensibly examining a decision by QantasLink to close its bases at Canberra (CBR), Mildura (MQL), and Hobart Airports. Representatives from Qantas declined to attend this week’s hearing, earning the ire of Committee Chairman Senator Matthew Canavan.  

While the subject-matter tackled by the committee has strayed from the QantasLink decision, as did the contents of the 75 submissions received so far, Norris said QantasLink’s decision had no impact on his airport’s bottom line.

“There isn’t actually a base (in a physical building sense), it just means there are crew who live in Hobart,” he said. “The change, as I understand it, is that they will start their days flying from somewhere else, rather than Hobart.”

QantasLink has 32 pilots and flight attendants based in Hobart. The airline has offered relocation packages or fortnightly repositioning allowances.

QantasLink generally has two aircraft parked at Hobart overnight that operate the next day’s first flights up to mainland airports.

Photo: Hobart Airport.

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com