Departure
99%
vs 95% ▲ 4
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Sunshine Coast Airport (YBSU) is a jet-capable regional and international gateway at Marcoola, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, about 90 km north of Brisbane. A single long, lit runway handles everything from regional jets to general aviation and flight training traffic, making it a straightforward but busy VFR and IFR destination for visiting pilots.
Sunshine Coast Airport serves the Sunshine Coast Region of Queensland from its site at Marcoola, acting as the principal and only jet-capable airport for an urban population of nearly 400,000. Alongside scheduled domestic and seasonal international services, the airport supports general aviation, tourism flying and flight training, making it a mixed-traffic environment of interest to visiting light-aircraft pilots as well as jet operators. It is owned by Sunshine Coast Council and operated under a long lease by Palisade Investment Partners.
The airfield lies at Marcoola, Queensland, about 10 km north of Maroochydore and roughly 90 km north of central Brisbane, within the South East Queensland coastal corridor. Air traffic in the area is worked by Brisbane Centre, and the airport itself provides its own ground and tower services given its status as a jet-capable, internationally connected field.
Sunshine Coast Airport has a single physical runway, 13/31, of 9,185 ft with a hard surface, and it is lit for night operations. There is no ILS.
Pilots can expect an ATIS on 114.2 MHz, with the common traffic advisory/tower frequency on 124.4 MHz. Ground movements are handled on 121.1 MHz, and a flight service frequency of 129 MHz is also published. Brisbane Centre provides area control in the surrounding airspace.
The airport's origins lie in the earlier Maroochydore Aerodrome, which closed around 1937. Meridan Plains was first proposed as a replacement site in 1946 by local progress associations, and further site proposals followed in 1954. In 1958 surveyor Fred Murray assessed the eventual site, then covered in sugar cane and tea-tree scrub, and in 1959 the Pacific Paradise Development Company funded construction of a 2,000 ft runway at a cost of 3,000 pounds. Roy Kassulked made the first landing there, in a HAL HT-2, on 14 August 1959. Maroochydore Airport was officially opened on 12 August 1961 by the Minister for Civil Aviation, Senator Shane Paltridge, and the first hangar was built shortly afterwards, housing Sunland Aviation by 1965. A terminal was built in 1979, and the runway was progressively extended and strengthened, reaching 1,797 m in 1983 to accommodate Fokker F28 and BAe 146 regional jets, and again upgraded in 1993 for Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 operations. A new terminal opened in 1997 alongside a renaming to Maroochydore-Sunshine Coast Airport. On 3 June 2010 the airport took its current name, Sunshine Coast Airport, and changed its ICAO code from YBMC to YBSU. In February 2017 a 99-year operating lease was awarded to Palisade Investment Partners.
Sunshine Coast Airport remains the principal airport for the Sunshine Coast region, handling scheduled domestic services to cities including Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney, seasonal international flights to Auckland, and a substantial volume of general aviation, tourism and flight training activity. It operates around the clock and is owned by Sunshine Coast Council, with operations managed by Sunshine Coast Airport Pty Ltd under a long-term lease held by Palisade Investment Partners.