Departure
99%
vs 95% ▲ 3
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Mackay Airport (YBMK) serves the regional city of Mackay in central Queensland, acting as a gateway to the Whitsunday coast and islands. It is a busy regional aerodrome handling major domestic carriers alongside general aviation and flight training activity, with a single long sealed runway suitable for a wide range of aircraft.
Mackay Airport lies in South Mackay, Queensland, and is the principal airport serving the city and the surrounding mining, agricultural and industrial region. It is used by major Australian carriers including Qantas, QantasLink, Jetstar and Virgin Australia, as well as by cargo operators and general aviation, and is a useful staging point for pilots heading toward the Whitsunday coast and islands. The old terminal building, dating from the 1950s, still stands on the field and now houses a local flight school.
The airport is located in South Mackay, Queensland, Australia, close to the city centre and within reach of the Whitsunday coast and islands to the north. Brisbane Centre provides the overlying area service, and the field itself operates with a tower frequency shared with the common traffic advisory frequency.
Mackay Airport has one physical runway, 14/32, with a hard surface measuring 6,497 feet in length and equipped with runway lighting. There is no ILS approach available at the field.
Pilots should expect ATIS on 112.7 MHz, with the CTAF and tower frequency both on 124.5 MHz. A flight service frequency is available on 135.5 MHz. Brisbane Centre provides area control services in the surrounding airspace.
Efforts to establish an aerodrome at Mackay began in 1927 when Captain Ron Adair selected the site on the town commons and landed his own Avro biplane there. The Mackay City Council moved to excise land for aviation purposes in 1930, and the Mackay Aerodrome was officially opened that April by mayor Ian Wood; a formal airport licence followed in March 1931. An airshow in 1938 featuring ten aircraft drew over 8,000 spectators. The airfield had grass landing strips until 1940, when the Commonwealth Government extended its boundaries and upgraded the runways to unsealed gravel for wartime use, the field serving as an important military base until 1945 owing to its proximity to the South West Pacific theatre. The main runway was extended in 1948 and further upgraded, sealed and strengthened in 1958. The Commonwealth took control of the airport from the council in 1941 and built a new passenger terminal in 1953, a building that remains in use today. Control passed through several bodies over subsequent decades before the airport was sold to a private consortium in November 2008. A secondary cross runway, 05/23, measuring 1,344 by 30 metres, was closed in 2016 and partially converted into a taxiway owing to the cost of maintaining its lighting and pavement.
Mackay Airport today handles scheduled services from Qantas, QantasLink, Jetstar and Virgin Australia, alongside cargo operators such as Pel-Air and Toll Aviation. General aviation and flight training remain active at the field: the old 1950s terminal building houses a flight school, and local operator Horizon Airways, expanded substantially after a 2021 acquisition, now runs a fleet of nine aircraft offering charter flights to nearby destinations including Keswick and Hamilton Islands.