First up, Edinburgh Airport in Scotland (IATA: EDI) made it into the headlines this week when Scotsman.com reported that 60,000 people were without power on Wednesday night and about 60 passengers were left stranded at the airport after the storms caused havoc to transport, schools and city centres across much of Scotland. In addition, hundreds of air passengers faced disruption after 100 flights were cancelled at Edinburgh and some 45 at Glasgow (IATA: GLA).

2 days earlier, a different kind of environmental impact hit another airport a few thousand miles to the East. The New York Times reported that Capital International Airport in Beijing (IATA: PEK) was forced to cancel hundreds of flights on Monday because of heavy smog and weather conditions. The article concluded that the cancellations were the latest sign that pollution in China’s largest cities, among the worst in the world, is leading to significant economic losses.

In Australia, the two airports of the ever competing cities of Melbourne and Sydney played cat and mouse this week. First the Sydney Morning Herald broke the story that Sydney Airport (IATA: SYD) is proposing a major overhaul under which terminals would be divided by what airline passengers are flying with, rather than where they are travelling to. The story continued by outlining that under the plan, the current domestic terminals would accommodate Qantas, its international partners and Jetstar, and the current international terminal would take Virgin Australia and other international airlines.

Two days later, the Melbourne based newspaper The Age answered Sydney’s challenge with the story that Melbourne Airport (IATA: MEL) is set to expand, with plans to build a $300 million passenger terminal and improve freeway access. And to score the match making goal against its arch rival, the news report said Melbourne is gearing up to have a new interconnected domestic terminal running by mid-2014, a mere 5 years prior to Sydney’s proposed terminal shuffle expected to be completed by 2019.

For the final two stories this week, we travel to the United States. First up was the story from Reno, Nevada where according to FOX News a woman fired about three weeks ago for refusing to load an emaciated hunting dog on a plane at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport (IATA: RNO) is taking her job back. The news said Lynn Jones, who had worked more than five years as a baggage handler for St. Louis-based Airport Terminal Services, accepted her employer’s offer to give her the job back, and said she hopes to put the flap behind her.

And finally to Mr. Alec Baldwin who made headlines this week for getting kicked off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport (IATA: LAX). According to The Scoop the incident happened on Tuesday when Mr. Baldwin boarded an American Airlines flight. In the same article Baldwin’s rep Matthew Hiltzik explained what went down: “Alec was asked to leave the flight for playing ‘Words with Friends’ on his iPad, while parked at the gate. Alec is so in love with ‘Words with Friends’ that he would risk getting thrown off a flight to play. He’s already been re-booked on another American Airlines flight.”
That’s all we have for this week – safe travels everyone!

[Picture from Wikipedia - some rights reserved]

The plane is an A380 from Singapore Airlines and I’m standing right under its left wing between the two Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. Above me I can see an open wing panel with two large pipes connected to the wing. Beneath all this the comparatively small refuelling truck and Will, a jokingly happy 36 year old Filipino who came to Australia when he was 10, holding what they call the deadman device firmly in his hand.

Refuelling the Singapore bound Airbus A380 with registration 9V-SKI will take Will about an hour. During this time he can’t leave the site, nor can he sit down or do anything other than holding the safety device permanently in his hand not forgetting to let go of the lever every now and then for a brief moment in order to confirm that he is – well – still alive. It’s not a joke, but rather one of a number of cleverly thought through safety features. If he let go of the ‘deadman’ device, the system would immediately stop the refuelling process.

On this sunny Thursday morning the captain of the Singapore flight requested the Airbus to be filled with about 10% more fuel than on other days. Will tells me that’s likely due to anticipated weather patterns that require more fuel en route to Singapore. Fuel orders are radioed to the company’s operation centre, located just outside the airport perimeter. From there the order is directed to an available refuelling truck driver for execution. Sometimes initial orders are provisional only and the drivers fill the planes up to a certain, safe amount before they get the final numbers. But since it can take a long time to refuel (e.g. a Los Angeles bound A380 can take about 2 hours to fill up), getting started with the job is essential for a timely operation.

Earlier in the day another refuelling truck driver, 29-year-old Adam, who is refuelling domestic planes today tells me that it’s not uncommon to see differences in fuel loads on the same route. If a few planes take similar amounts but one requests less, he would notify the flight engineer so that they can double check the numbers, weather patterns and so on. In a way the refuelling guys add another safety layer to the system.

Adam after he finished refuelling the JetStar plane

With Adam who started at 5am this morning and recently relocated from Darwin where he used to work for the competition, I witness the refuelling of a Qantas Link Dash-8. This aircraft type is tricky for the refuelling guys as its fuel panel displays the fuel amount in pounds but the orders come in kilograms and – to make matters worse – the invoice is issued in litres. So again, double-checking the numbers is important and a little math affinity goes a long way in this job. The system of course has redundancy checks in place and at the end of each refuelling job the flight engineers check the numbers and sign the receipt.

The panel of a Dash-8 Q400 series

A little later I have lunch with the self proclaimed aviation super nerd Bruce, 43, who got introduced to the job through a friend in 2005 back in Sydney. Bruce who has a pilot license himself is in charge of training up the newbies and making sure procedures are followed to the letter. He says this is his dream job because he gets to work around planes all day long. When it’s safe and he has a moment, Bruce will take every opportunity to photograph and write about the planes at the airport. His Flickr collection is impressive.

But Bruce isn’t just running around taking pictures of planes. His experience and extensive knowledge makes him what you would call the libero in soccer for the operation as he is filling in the gaps where and when needed. He tells me his employer has about 40 staff, 17 trucks and runs a 24-hour operation in Melbourne. With that they go through about 4 Million litres of A1 Jet Fuel per day.

Happily chatting away, we suddenly get a radio call with an order to refuel a Qantas Boeing 747-438/ER. The VH-OEH registered plane only ordered a small amount of fuel because it will be flying empty to Sydney as part of a relocation flight. In this business a small amount is relative though, the amount of fuel ordered would still fill about 400 cars.

When we get to the Jumbo Bruce positions the truck right under its wing, secures the area around the truck with traffic cones, connects the anti static device then links the pipes to the ground outlet before connecting it up to the wing. He then checks the fuel panel on the aircraft, enters the total required fuel load and starts the refuelling itself.  Most aircraft handle inflow distribution to the various tanks automatically but sometimes manual adjustments are needed in order to make sure the load is evenly distributed.

After the desired amount is filled, Bruce disconnects the pipes from the wings, closes the panel, removes the ground pipe and static device, prints the receipt and gets the engineer to sign it before removing the traffic cones. He then radios the operations centre for getting the details of the next job.

Bruce and his truck before going to his next task

For me it is the end of the day. Before I leave I need to ask Bruce one last burning question: where do the refuelling trucks get refilled? He laughs and points to a small diesel pump on the edge of the car park where the refuelling trucks are parked.

[All pictures except the one of the Dash-8 fuel panel are copyright LateDeparture; Dash-8 Fuel Panel is copyright BruceK68]

With the US Thanksgiving long-weekend only days away, headlines about airports preparing frantically for a storm of passengers keep increasing on a daily basis. One particular airport caught our attention though: Los Angeles International (IATA: LAX). The Los Angeles Times wrote that shortages of customs and immigration agents have been causing significant delays for thousands of travelers, forcing them to wait on their planes or stand in line for up to three hours before being processed.

Over in Singapore, Changi Airport (IATA: SIN) makes it into the LateDeparture headlines for a second time this week. The first time was when we wrote about their noble efforts of teaming up with Singapore Polytech to provide a real-world experience for students through SPELL, a retail store wholly run by students (read the full story here). The second time isn’t quite so rosy. The Sydney Morning Herald wrote about a Hong Kong Airlines Airbus 330 flight carrying 159 passengers that had been delayed in Singapore for almost nine hours due to a technical fault and a fracas between two groups of passengers which left an old Chinese women with an injured hand. The story continued when the furious Chinese passengers refused to leave the same plane at Hong Kong airport (IATA: HKG) for several hours until they were paid compensation for flight delays. Accused with mishandling the situation in Singapore, Changi Airport responded with an official statement saying “while the passengers were awaiting updates from the airline on their flight arrangements, Changi Airport worked with the airline’s ground handling agent, SATS, to facilitate meal arrangements for the affected passengers. Customer service agents were also deployed to provide assistance such as distributing mineral water to passengers and assisting them in checking on alternative flights to Hong Kong. Airport police officers were also present to assist with crowd control.”

Over in Australia Boeing made some dream headlines this week when its new 787 Dreamliner visited Sydney and Melbourne for the very first time ever. LateDeparture was lucky enough to witness the landing in Melbourne – watch the video on YouTube.

Crossing back to the Northern Hemisphere, in the United Kingdom Passenger Terminal Today wrote that the new-look North Terminal at Gatwick Airport (IATA: LGW) was officially opened by former Prime Minister John Major following the completion of the £73 million (US$115.5 million) project to extend the building to accommodate 20 million passengers per year by 2020.

And finally we finish with a bit of technology news coming from Russia. According to the Wall Street Journal Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport  (IATA: SVO) will launch a service it says will be the first in the world — video flight check-in via Skype. The airport forecasts that between 15% and 20% of all the passengers will be using the Internet-based video phone service.

Have a great week everyone and remember to follow us on Twitter for all the latest up-to-date stories during the week.

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by cobalt123]

Then in other news this week, Canada’s airports caught our attention twice: First up was Canada’s 8th busiest (and probably the one with the longest name), Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport (IATA: YWG). This week the airport unveiled its new 51,000 square-meter terminal replacing the 46 year old former structure. In a Winnipeg Sun article Barry Rempel, president and CEO of Winnipeg Airports Authority, called the day “momentous.”

The second Canadian news was a bit less serious but surely equally if not more interesting: Over in Vancouver, 29 year old Jaeger Mah finished his 80 day stay at Vancouver International airport (IATA: YVR). The Canadian won the gig in an airport contest to mark its 80th year. Read the full story in our feature report from Friday: 80 days at the airport without flying anywhere.

The other side of North America also had its news moment this week when during the last days of October an unprecedented winter storm hit the east coast. According to the L.A. Times, power outages were affecting more than 2.3 million residents and businesses from Maryland to Massachusetts, including more than half a million in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. As you can imagine, airports across the region were also severely affected. MSNBC.com quoted the tracking site Flightaware.com which reported nearly 600 flights to Northeastern airports canceled, including destinations such as Philadelphia (IATA: PHL), New York (IATA: JFK), Newark (IATA: EWR), Boston (IATA: BOS) and others.

And finally we received note from a remote area where over 2,000 tourists got stranded due to bad weather: the Himalayan or more precisely Tenzing-Hillary Airport (IATA: LUA) in Lukla, Nepal. According to the Indian Express, the foreign tourists, most of them from the US, UK and Germany have been stranded near a Mount Everest base camp for the last six days facing a shortage of food and medicines. Authorities had to close the only airstrip serving Lukla due to bad weather.

Have a great new, delay-free week, everyone!

[Picture from Wikipedia - some rights reserved]

First up was Cairo Airport (IATA: CAI) where Reuters reported that go-slow protests by air traffic controllers grounded four fifths of flights from the major regional hub and left as many as 3,000 travellers stranded. At Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada (IATA: YYZ) Scott Armstrong, a spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, told The Vancouver Sun that [a job action by security workers tasked with screening passengers] resulted in about 200 delayed flights so far this week. Yesterday then, Business Week was able to report that those long delays eased to a more tolerable 30 minutes on average. And finally, over in Australia disruptions continued for Qantas on Friday at many of the country’s airports even though the previously announced industrial actions were called of. Sadly there are no sign of relief for the national airline as according to The Wall Street Journal the next strike is already on the horizon: 11,000 passengers will have their travel plans thrown into disarray tomorrow, Monday because of strike action planned by engineers at Sydney (IATA: SYD; LD reviewed), Melbourne (IATA: MEL; LD reviewed) and Brisbane (IATA: BNE; LD reviewed) airports.

Moving over to the United Kingdom where not strike actions were the talk of the week, but more so the Kingdom’s airports future. First up we heard from Reuters that Britain’s Competition Commission CC.L on Friday told UK airport operator BAA that it must sell one of its Scottish airports before it disposes of London Stansted airport (IATA: STN; LD reviewed). On Friday The Financial Times then broke the story that a radical plan for a new “Heath-Wick” airport hub featuring a £5bn high-speed rail link between Heathrow (IATA: LHR; LD hub page) and Gatwick (IATA: LGW; LD reviewed) is being considered seriously by ministers. The article continued by arguing that building a 15-minute link between Heathrow and Gatwick could increase the price of landing slots at the latter, and eventually force low-cost airlines such as Ryanair and EasyJet to move to Stansted [which in results] free up more slots at the new “Heath-Wick” hub for an expansion of regional capacity.

Moving on to the United States which – surprise, surprise – wasn’t left out of the news this week. CNN informed us on Tuesday that the Transportation Security Administration unveiled a “trusted traveler” program meant to expedite screening at U.S. airport checkpoints. The article unveiled that the program is currently in its evaluation phase, where only certain frequent fliers on American and Delta airlines flying out of certain airports. Delta passengers must be flying out of Atlanta (IATA: ATL) and Detroit (IATA: DTW) airports, and American Airlines passengers must be flying out of Miami (IATA: MIA; LD reviewed) and Dallas (IATA: DFW) airports.

And finally we close with the news from Forbes who informed us that Sacramento International Airport (IATA: SMF) was scheduled to open a $1 billion terminal on Thursday, replacing a structure that is four decades old with a building that is designed to be a striking entrance to California’s capital region.

With this, have a great new week and safe travels!

[Photo is a LateDeparture composition based on the logos of Heathrow and Gatwick Airport as well as the Flickr picture from by Ti.mo - some rights reserved ]

First, on Tuesday, customs staff walked off their jobs for a few hours over a pay dispute. The same happened again in Sydney (IATA: SYD: LD reviewed) on Thursday as reported in the Herald Sun. As if this wasn’t enough, baggage handlers walked off their jobs on Friday morning for an hour and bad weather in Melbourne (IATA: MEL; LD reviewed) led to additional long delays. In case of the latter, Qantas – for the first time – even used an Airbus A380 to clear the backlog of passenger flying from Melbourne to Sydney, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

Then, for the second time in two months, we received news of a power failure that darkened an international airport. Last time it was Delhi’s new Terminal 3 (IATA: DEL) – we wrote about it – this time it happened at Juarez International Airport in Mexico City (IATA: MEX). According to The Washington Post, the power outage lead to a diversion of an unspecified number of flights.

On Thursday TechCrunch let us know that Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, launched airport maps for 42 US cities. According to the article the service lets you see inside airports in order to locate terminals, check-in counters, restrooms, shops, restaurants, baggage claim areas, information desks and more. More airports are to follow with time.

And finally to our odd news of the week. We couldn’t decide on the winner this week, hence we’re going to present both to you: First up was the news from WSBT who wrote that Atlanta police shut down parts of the baggage claim area at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (IATA: ATL) on Monday afternoon after they received reports of a suspicious package. It turned out that it was a bag of fish!

Second up was the news about Marlborough Airport in Massachusetts (IATA: MXG) seeking compensation for $676,048 in damage that resulted from a visit by Barack Obama. The Boston Business Journal wrote Obama landed at the field on April 1, 2010, so he could visit an emergency bunker in the state.

That’s all we have for this week – safe travels everyone!

[Photo from Flickr - Some rights reserved by Christopher Neugebauer]

A show of a different type continued in Australia as the Chilean ash cloud once again halted air traffic across the east coast at the beginning of the week. And whilst this second interruption seemed not to last very long this time, Qantas later in the week once again cancelled flights between Australia and New Zealand while other operators claimed they could fly around or below the cloud, reported the Sydney Morning Herald.

A different kind of interruption occurred in Peru this week as Reuters reported: Thousands of protesters opposed to mining and energy projects in southern Peru took over a commercial airport on Saturday. Apparently 3,000 protesters had occupied the runway at the Juliaca airport (IATA: JUL) in the region of Puno.

Better news reached us from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (IATA: PHX) where according to Passenger Terminal Today, the PHX Sky Train, which will connect all terminals  will be completed by early 2015, nearly six years earlier than planned. Six years earlier, wow! We wonder who did that first estimate…

And finally for the odd news of the week, this time from Edinburgh Airport in Scotland (IATA: EDI): According to the BBC a British Airways flight was delayed for three hours after a mobile phone was allegedly thrown from the plane on to a runway. The incident apparently followed the discovery of an unclaimed mobile phone on board. Well, surely there are better ways to dispose an unwanted, old mobile we think!

That’s all folkes, read you again next week. Safe travels!

[Photo from the Paris Air Show - all rights reserved]

When you get past the fairly efficient passport control, the international terminal presents itself as a large but light-filled structure facing the runways. The first shop that presents itself to you is a large-ish duty free shop with a fairly good range of all the usual stuff. You then discover a semi-circled walkway on either side of this shop leading to additional stores that range from Sunglass Hut or Rip Curl to more unique outlets like the Rainbow Serpent. Then on either end of the walkways you’ll get to food and beverage outlets. On one side you find the Moreton Bay Ale House (yes, it’s a pub) and several fast food outlets. On the other side there’s Coffee Club and a few others.

Because my flight to Papua New Guinea received a two hour delay that day, it left me with plenty of time to explore the airport. It could have even been more time hadn’t Coffee Club been flooded with passengers that morning. With my coffee at hand I then got slightly more adventurous and discovered the airport offered more than just the usual things you see at every airport: at Brissie you also find some interesting art on display and even free wifi if you know where to go to. First, the art is displayed in form of two large sculptures by Stephen Killick (partially pictured above) on either side of the large glass-sided part of the terminal towards the gates. It’s well worth looking at it for a moment! Secondly, the free wifi, even though this really is a cheeky one, can be found in front of the Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer lounge as was helpfully pointed out by one Foursquare tipper.

Overall, here are my usual top “time wasting” tips:

• Check the departure board and uncover some unusual destinations (e.g. ever heard of Honiara?)
• Shop for some last Australiana at the “Around Australia” store next to the pub (e.g. they offer a neat Qantas plane toy kit)
• R.M. Williams is the store to go for your true Aussie outdoor hinterland kit
• Buy (or just look at) an original, certified Aboriginal canvas painting at the “Rainbow Serpent” store
• Get up to date on your emails by using the cheeky free wifi in front of the KrisFlyer Singapore airlines lounge
• And if you then must, use the smoker’s balcony behind the Coffee Club for that one last drag before your flight (well if this isn’t a time wasting activity, then I really don’t know!!)

Airport Name	Brisbane Airport – International Terminal
Website	http://bne.com.au/
IATA Code	BNE
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall
	AUD 175
	AUD 65.99

[Picture by LateDeparture - all rights reserved]

I’ve been in two minds over reviewing this airport. On one hand, Cairns is only the 7^th busiest airport in Australia and can I highly doubt anyone outside of Australia can actually name 7 cities on this continent, or am I wrong? But then for comparison, the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Dallas Houston [corrected; apologies for the mistake], Texas (IATA: IAH) is the US 7^th busiest airport and I’d certainly wouldn’t hesitate writing about that one.

Cairns also has recently been in the international news with the incredibly scary category 5 cyclone Yasi hitting the area on the 3^rd February. The airport subsequently shut for more than a day but luckily didn’t suffer any major damage.

On the other hand, and on a more personal note, Cairns is special to me as it has been my first port of call when I came to Australia for the very first time years ago. I subsequently went back there a number of times as it’s a really nice little city in Far North Queensland. Cairns is also one of the main gateways to the magnificent Great Barrier Reef and with that an important airport for thousands of tourists.

The airport (IATA: CNS) operates an International and a Domestic terminal which are about 200m apart from each other. My review focuses on the Domestic terminal which has just been completed after a AU$200 Million redevelopment.

My very first impression of the terminal wasn’t very good but this had not much to do with the actual terminal, it was because the rental car return signs were inconsistent and partially missing altogether making your way to the drop zone ridiculously very confusing. The actual terminal is pleasant, even though it slightly resembles an over-sized tin shed. Outside, there are a few excellent sculptures (see photo) and inside, the terminal building is light and airy. Furthermore, it even features an air-side outdoor area which means you can continue to enjoy the warm, tropical climate, if that’s your thing, even after you’ve  passed through security. This is also a welcome change for smokers who can find a separate smoking corner in that area too.

Inside there are a few shops and cafes and all look still very new. The one thing I couldn’t quite understand is why the shops closed before all flights left. Could this have to do with the very relaxed attitude of the people who live that far north? Anyway, overall I enjoyed the experience and will certainly come back. Maybe more because of the reef than the airport though. But that’s an unfair comparison. Really.

Finally, here are my favourite things to do:

• Go to the Coffee Club and try a piece of date & honey loaf. How good is it?!!
• Play with the latest toy for little and not so little boys: buy a “Hexbug” at the Newslink store while… (continue reading the next bullet point…)
• Girls, enjoy browsing through the latest Ugg boot styles at the “Purely Merino” store
• Shop for your last souvenirs at the “Discover Australia Store”. My favourites are the fridge magnets; they stockthe classic super tacky style we all know and love plus a great range of uber modern ones.
• And finally, have a look at the wonderful Australian photographs exhibited in the Ric J. Steininger Photography Gallery

Airport Name	Cairns Domestic Terminal
Website	http://www.cairnsairport.com.au
IATA Code	CNS
Design
Shopping
Toilets
Overall
	no duty-free available in the domestic terminal
	no duty-free available in the domestic terminal

[Picture from LateDeparture - all rights reserved]

By 6am you are stepping out of your house, on your way to a 9am meeting that you have scheduled with some important clients. The only trouble is, the meeting is 1,000km away. How do you do it? Well, by rushing to the airport, catching one of those “flying buses” and hope there are no delays along the way.

That’s exactly what thousands of Australians do every single week, and many probably a couple times a week even. Australia’s two biggest cities Melbourne and Sydney compete on all levels with each other. It’s therefore no surprise that there is also a lot of business done between the two cities. Plus there’s probably no larger company in the country that doesn’t employ people in both cities. So, I’m calling this form of a commute “the Melbourne run”.

I’d say it takes a new Melbourne resident a few attempts to figure out the optimal route, time and coffee pick up point on the Melbourne run. So, let me provide you some guidance as after all this wouldn’t be LateDeparture if I didn’t have a list for you:

1.       Getting to the airport: Melbourne’s International airport (IATA: MEL) is located about 25km North-West of the city. It is well connected by a motorway but surprisingly for train and tram rich Melbourne, the road is the only way to get there. The airport doesn’t have a train link. If you come from the city, it’s a lot easier getting to the airport in the morning as it is in the evening when you have to share the road with all other glorious peak hour traffic leaving the city. But be aware Monday mornings and days at the start or end of school holidays can mean more airport traffic and you should add 10 to 15 minutes to your journey. In terms how to get there, you have the option of taking a cab (about $60 from the city), catching the airport express bus, “Skybus” ($26 return from Southern Cross Station) or driving yourself. My general rule is if I’m only going away for up to 3 days, driving yourself is the best option as it’s cheaper than 2 taxis (2 days in the long-term car park for $46, 3 to 6 days $69) and  more convenient than the bus. Either way, the journey from the city takes about 20 to 30 minutes on most days.

2.       The terminals: Depending on which terminal you’re in, there are different options. Terminal 1 and 3 are Domestic terminals with 1 being Qantas and 3 being Virgin Blue where as terminal 2 hosts the International flights (yes there is a 4th terminal which hosts Tiger Airways but in it’s current form, this terminal plays a negligible role). Unlike other airports where the terminal buildings are apart from each other, at Melbourne everything (apart from terminal 4) is under one roof which means you can easily get to and from other terminals. But beware, once you are through security, you can’t get to the other terminals without exiting the flight-side area again.

3.       Where to get coffee: Since the Melbourne run is mostly done in the morning, you probably want to find a spot for a quick coffee before boarding your flight. Don’t forget the airlines won’t allow you to bring your hot drink onboard. In terminal 3 I prefer to get my caffeine fix from Hudson Coffee after the security checks. Now l wouldn’t normally suggest this given Melbourne’s reputation for amazing coffee and talented barrista’s (which is true l might add) but good old Hudsons never seems to let me down: Efficient, reliably quick  and the coffee is reasonably good. If a healthier juice is your preference, try the Boost Juice close by.
In terminal 1, I prefer the coffee joint straight in front of you after the security gate. If you hold a Qantas lounge pass, turn right after the security and head upstairs for some free nibbles. I would still advise you to buy a coffee downstairs unless you are a lover of very average coffee. If you have ample time (which shouldn’t happen if you planned the Melbourne run properly), you’re better off in terminal 1 as there are a lot more shops than in terminal 3.

So with all that, how long does the Melbourne run take? Well, as so often, the answer is “it depends”. When I’m on the Melbourne run to Sydney departing at 7.30am with carry-on only, I can leave my front door  in Port Melbourne at 6.30am on the knocker. This gives me a few snooze sessions with my alarm clock, 15 minutes to go through security and slug down a coffee before boarding at 7.15. See – perfectly timed!  Cutting it a little thin you think?, Well  I didn’t call it the Melbourne run for nothing .

[Photo by LateDeparture - all rights reserved]