Melbourne airport has been ranked Australia’s least convenient, with Sydney coming in a close second-worst.
Travel insurance company iSelect ranked Australia’s 11 major airports on factors like cost of transport to and from the airport, parking and queue durations, then assigned each airport an overall “convenience index” score.
“I live in Melbourne and I think Melbourne is one of the worst,” said iSelect’s Sarah Grealy, who created the airport convenience index. “The lack of transport to the airport is where it all initiated from.”
Townsville and Canberra airport tied for first place, scoring 7.57, compared to Melbourne’s 1.86.
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Grealy said the ranking is based on five criteria: average cost of parking, average transport costs from the airport (public transport and taxi), distance from the city centre, number of daily passengers and queueing times. Grealy sourced data from each airport’s annual reports and used consumer reviews from third-party website Airline Quality to quantify queueing times.
Smaller airports generally scored higher due to shorter queueing times and closer proximity to their cities. Cairns and Darwin came in second and third respectively.
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Table showing the airport convenience index
Sydney’s airport had the most expensive average cost of parking, and long wait times with an overall score of 2.43. However, Melbourne airport’s high average cost of parking and cost of public transport and taxis, combined with its distance from the CBD, solidified its place at the bottom of the list.
A Melbourne airport spokesperson responded to the rating, saying: “Melbourne airport is Australia’s largest 24-hour airport and was intentionally built away from heavily built-up areas.”
“Melbourne airport offers a range of parking options, starting from just $12 a day, which is the cheapest of any capital city airport in Australia.”
Public transport to and from the airport is the responsibility of the government, the spokesperson said.
Grealy said her own frustration with Melbourne is mainly due to there being no train line. The privately owned SkyBus operates as the airport’s main public transport provider.