Departure
98%
vs 95% ▲ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Albury Airport lies on the eastern edge of the city of Albury in New South Wales, serving the twin cities of Albury and Wodonga on the Victorian border. It is a busy regional field with a control tower, a single sealed runway, and scheduled QantasLink and Rex Airlines services, making it a useful and instructive stop for a VFR pilot transiting the Murray region.
Albury Airport is a regional aerodrome serving the adjoining cities of Albury, New South Wales, and Wodonga, Victoria. It is operated by Albury City Council and handles scheduled QantasLink and Rex Airlines jet and turboprop services alongside charter and general aviation traffic. For a simulator pilot it offers the chance to fly into a controlled regional airport with a single long hard runway, a daylight-hours tower, and a VOR for radio navigation, all set against the backdrop of the Murray Valley.
The airport sits about 2 nautical miles northeast of Albury and close to Wodonga, on the Victoria-New South Wales border. Air traffic services in the area are provided through Melbourne Centre, with a flight service frequency of 125.2 MHz. When the control tower is operating it manages Albury's airspace directly; outside tower hours pilots coordinate their own arrivals and departures using the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency.
Albury has a single physical runway, 07/25, of 6211 feet with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS at the airport.
Albury Airport broadcasts ATIS on 115.6 MHz and 133.85 MHz. The Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) is 124.2 MHz, used when the tower is closed. Albury Tower operates on 123.25 MHz and Albury Ground Control on 121.8 MHz. Melbourne Centre provides flight service on 125.2 MHz. A VOR installation at the field assists with radio navigation and instrument approach procedures, though no instrument landing system is available.
Albury's control tower operates during daylight hours only. While the tower is active, pilots are worked into the circuit by Albury Tower on 123.25 MHz with ground movements coordinated on 121.8 MHz. Outside these hours, arriving and departing traffic must self-announce and coordinate using the CTAF on 124.2 MHz to maintain separation without a controller.
The site was laid out as an aerodrome in the late 1930s, but it was not until 1963 that construction allowing regular passenger flights to Sydney and Melbourne was completed, with the first scheduled flights arriving on 16 December that year. The airport was officially opened by the Minister for National Development, David Fairbairn, on 13 September 1964. The late 1970s and early 1980s brought rapid growth, fuelled by the Albury-Wodonga National Growth Centre project, with runway upgrades carried out to permit operation of Fokker F28 regional jets flown by East-West Airlines and Airlines of New South Wales. A control tower and new terminal were completed in 1983, and passenger numbers almost doubled over the following three years, from 82,000 to 160,000. Kendell Airlines remained a major operator at Albury, flying on behalf of Ansett to Sydney and Melbourne until 2002. Virgin Blue introduced double-daily Embraer 170 jet services from Sydney in February 2008, later replaced by ATR-72 turboprops before withdrawal following Virgin Australia's restructuring in 2020. Brindabella Airlines operated a direct Canberra service from April 2003 until 2012, when it was withdrawn amid rising costs and low patronage. JetGo introduced jet services to Brisbane in June 2016, expanding to the Gold Coast in 2017, before ceasing operations in mid-2018 when the airline entered administration.
Albury Airport today handles scheduled QantasLink services, including Embraer E190 flights to Brisbane operated by Alliance Airlines and Q400 services to Sydney, alongside Rex Airlines Saab 340 flights to Sydney. The airport retains an Air Traffic Control tower, one of relatively few at a regional airport in New South Wales, which operates during daylight hours only, with the CTAF used for self-coordination outside these times. There is no instrument landing system, though a VOR remains available to assist navigation and approaches.