Melbourne Airport has been ranked the least convenient in Australia, according to a new study of the country's 11 major airports. Sydney Airport came a close second-worst in the convenience index compiled by travel insurance company iSelect.
The study assigned each airport a score based on five criteria: average cost of parking, average transport costs from the airport, distance from the city centre, number of daily passengers and queueing times. Data was drawn from annual reports and consumer reviews from the third-party website Airline Quality.
Townsville and Canberra airports tied for first place with a score of 7.57, while Melbourne scored just 1.86. Cairns and Darwin followed in third and fourth respectively. The rankings showed that smaller airports generally performed better due to shorter queues and closer proximity to their cities.
iSelect's Sarah Grealy, who created the index, said Melbourne's poor showing was driven by high parking and transport costs, combined with its distance from the CBD. Sydney had the most expensive parking and long wait times, earning a score of 2.43.
A Melbourne Airport spokesperson responded by noting that the airport is Australia's largest 24-hour facility and was intentionally built away from heavily built-up areas. They added that parking starts from $12 a day, which they described as the cheapest of any capital city airport in Australia, and said public transport is a matter for the government.
Ms Grealy said her own frustration with Melbourne stems primarily from the lack of a train line. The privately owned SkyBus currently operates as the airport's main public transport provider.
