Ballina Byron Airport

This is a small domestic airport that has outgrown it's small terminal by a long way. It strains to handle anything more than two aircraft at a time. When I arrived there were 3 planes trying to be turned around in the same hour. Arriving passengers packed out the baggage hall with their friends and relatives while departing passengers filled up every other space in the airport. The queue through security went out the terminal door resulting in some passengers mistaking this as a line for check in and missing the check in cut off time limit but thankfully airport staff allowed them to still check in with the chaos. Beyond the single security point it was standing room only. With only two gates side by side more confusion occurred at people lined up for the wrong aircraft because of snaking lines in the small space. A new terminal which is planned but not going to be built for some time it can not come quick enough.

For the number of passengers it handles the Ballina-Byron airport really isn't that big. For most of the day it's fairly quiet with REX operating its 36 seaters 3 times per day. However within a 2 hour timeframe both Virgin and Jetstar operate their 180-seaters into and out of the airport which causes it to almost reach breaking point. The departure lounge isn't in any way big enough to cater for a full flight and the ventilation leaves a bit to be desired. The ground crew from all airlines were friendly enough and the cafe wasn't too bad. However when comparing Ballina the second largest market out of Sydney to other regional airports like Albury Dubbo Newcastle and Canberra it really is sub-par. It needs freshening up made more open and indeed made bigger to cater for any future growth that may come about! It gets the job done-but it's nothing special-and definitely isn't inviting.