00:00It's bittersweet for me. It's quite emotional actually. I've had, I would have to say,
00:04the best four years of my entire career here in Tasmania. And that's because I love it
00:13here. The physical attributes, the community is amazing. Tasmanians tend to work together,
00:19which is something quite different on the mainland. Government, business, community
00:25works very closely together. Tasmanians are proud of the airport. So you'll be
00:31leaving us in a couple of months time, but it does seem like you're leaving on a
00:36very high note. Is that right? Well, it is a, it is a high note. Today we've
00:41announced record, all time record passenger numbers, 1.43 million passengers. So we've
00:47had this projection of growth and much faster growth coming out of COVID than
00:53most airports in Australia for domestic travel. So we've got that as a peak, but
00:59we've also built our network very, very strongly. And that that's really now
01:05bedding in. As you can see, the airport's always busy these days and that, and
01:08that's a great sign, but also it's major infrastructure and growth of our terminal
01:13precinct, building our cargo and freight facilities, new taxi wave and new taxi
01:19ways for freighters. And a whole bunch of new projects coming up, the Royal Flying
01:25Docks Service and other, other things that serve the state and the community. So it is a high.
01:31Yeah, definitely.
01:32I mean, obviously since you've started, there has been a considerable shift in how the airport
01:38is presented both physically and I guess across the branding. I mean, would you say that your background in marketing has sort of driven that?
01:44How key is that to creating a functional and successful airport?
01:50Yeah, well, there's two things that are fundamental to what I've always been trained to do, but also where we believe it's really important to make a difference.
02:01We didn't want to be, we don't want to be just any old airport. So we wanted to be something special also that reflects the community sentiment.
02:10So everything we do is around brand and customer. So we have a customer focus. So whether it's our airline customers or our commercial partners on the airfield or our travelling public, we think about what their needs are and tailor our product and their needs to
02:30to how we think, how we act and how we do things. So I think that's been one of our biggest successes. And of course, our own team
02:39has been amazingly resilient, skilled and enthusiastic about building this airport brand for us.
02:49We're very keen to make sure that the experience here is an authentic one. We're very inspired by Brand Tasmania. So the work that Todd Babiak and his team have done to present the Tasmanian brand as a holistic brand.
03:04And so we get, we've been inspired by the whole Tasmanian thing and you see that manifesting itself now and the way that we've worked with our architects Cumulus on the holistic design of our terminals.
03:16A lot of airport terminals, a lot of airport terminals you go to, it's bitsy, they grow like Topsy, where we've decided to take our time to integrate very well our new arrivals hall, this new experience here, for example, at Gatti's celebrating a very famous local.
03:35And also as we move into the further development with the new arrivals hall, which will start construction early next year, our travellers are going to see this very, might be subliminal, but a very, very authentic experience, which reflects Tasmania, the values and Launceston and the area that we're in.
03:57Yeah, and you know, you did touch on Gatti's Bar and the ongoing developments here. I mean, how do you feel about, not to say you're leaving the job half done, but how do you feel leaving part way through?
04:10Look, I'm very proud of what we've achieved. My sense is that the airport is going to be, we've built a momentum now of development, construction, bettering our traveller experience,
04:26our traveller experience, and that will continue. So I guess I'll be really happy moving forward if that kind of legacy continues, and that we continue to serve the north of the state in Tasmania proudly.
04:41It is high and it's bittersweet for me. It's quite emotional actually. I've had, I would have to say, the best four years of my entire career here in Tasmania.
04:51And that's because of the, because I love it here. The physical attributes, the community is amazing. Tasmanians tend to work together, which is something quite different on the mainland.
05:06Government, government, business, community works very closely together. Tasmanians are proud of the airport.
05:11So that's really made my job harder in a way because we, we need to maintain those high levels of, high levels of expectation of the community.
05:23But it's also very satisfying to be able to get things done and work together in that environment.
05:28Yeah. And I mean, you say it's been the best four years of your career here. I mean, let's go back to day one of those four years.
05:36Well, the first day was during COVID and it was pretty depressing there. We had an arrivals, we had biosecurity and almost an international border crossing.
05:47People may remember having to fill in and check in with an app, et cetera. So that was a pretty heady days.
05:55The airport, certainly the passenger numbers were very, very low peak of COVID, sometimes 50 passengers a week.
06:02We had, we had the terminal closed during certain times of the day, but what we built, but probably one of the proudest things is that swimming against the tide,
06:14working with Virgin Australia in those very early days during COVID to launch Adelaide, Perth and Gold Coast services has been really, really important for us and,
06:25and really given us that momentum to grow and confidence to come out of COVID and to power ahead.
06:32And I think that's, that's probably one of the key highlights, but there's many other, many others.
06:37And I know that you said it was 50 passengers a week and now we're up to a hundred thousand passengers per month.
06:43Yes.
06:44That's, yeah.
06:45That's a lot.
06:46Yeah.
06:47Well, in the last 12 months, we've, this is the first time in the airport's history, we've exceeded a hundred thousand passengers in every month of the year.
06:56And an all time record back in January of a hundred and forty six thousand passengers.
07:02So really, yeah, so very, we're all as a team, very, very proud of those achievements.
07:09Do you have any advice for whoever might be sitting in your chair in a few months time?
07:15I think, look, it's to continue that momentum that we've achieved, continue to take a very strong customer focus moving forward.
07:26And, and also to, to enjoy this amazing place that we, we live in.
07:32It's a great business.
07:33Nurture, continue to nurture our team, fantastic team.
07:37And, and I think they'd be my, my key messages.
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