Gold Coast Airport

I've passed through this airport 7 times in the past 2 months & have been able to compare the original airside arrival/departure facilities with those newly opened. The latter are long overdue & far superior being lighter more spacious and with a much better range of food and drink outlets. On the negative side watching many newly arrived passengers wandering aimlessly through the building looking for the baggage arrival area suggests that signage needs to be improved. Having been caught twice in heavy rain while crossing between the aircraft and terminal buildings I can't understand why the renovations apparently do not appear to include any plans to install aerobridges to protect the presumably significant number of passengers from the vagaries of the Gold Coast weather. The check-in areas had yet to be renovated on my last visit & remain somewhat dark and dingy.

While the facilities are small and adequate (cafe duty free shops etc) travellers should note that you may experience delays getting through security and immigration checks. A vast number of travellers (on the day I departed with Air Asia to KUL) appeared not to be aware of the increased security checks for flights and in turn caused delays & extensive queues. Please also note that you may experience a 400m walk from the terminal to your aircraft across an uncovered walkway.

This airport can be reached by local public buses that connect to other routes in a side access road to the Gold Coast Highway. Do this and you will save significant sums on expensive designated shuttle bus services. The international and domestic terminals are rolled into one a la Melbourne with only the Tiger Airways terminal being separated by about 350 metres. The international section is understandably small but all facilities while basic are adequate. The main cafe could do with doors that close to separate the airconditioned interior from the sometimes steamy semi-tropical outdoors but given the current design this may be hard to achieve. Since the airport will undergo further development soon small matters like this may hopefully be addressed within the next few years.