How Melbourne Airport’s expansion will keep Victoria connected to the world

Every day, Melbourne Airport helps more than 100,000 people travel. We also support hundreds of freight flights every week. While we’re managing these operations to keep people and goods moving, we’re always planning for the long term.

Our Master Plan sets out how the airport will grow over the coming decades, guiding how we ensure Victoria has the aviation capacity to meet growing demand for travel and freight.

The new runway is a key part of that long-term planning. The Major Development Plan (MDP) explains how the third runway will be delivered, assessed and monitored, guided by the same practical thinking you see across other large infrastructure projects.

Each stage is grounded in detailed impact assessments and measured decision-making. But how will a third runway at Melbourne Airport help keep Victoria connected to the world in the years ahead?

Global links are part of what keeps Australia open to opportunities. With Melbourne on track to reach a population of six million people by 2032 and the airport expecting to support around 76 million passengers annually come 2042, doing the work now means we move with the world rather than react to it.

Here’s why both global and domestic connections matter:

• Keeps knowledge flowing in both directions, giving students, teachers and researchers a clear path to the ideas and partnerships that drive progress.

• Supports the communities built across continents, from families and cultural groups to workers who rely on dependable movement, to be rooted here while staying connected elsewhere.

• Helps industries attract the skills they need, giving local businesses that rely on exports and imports the confidence to plan for tomorrow.

• Strengthens Victoria’s role in global conversations, from trade missions to international events, by making the state easy to reach and easy to return to.

• Helps the wider economy grow because businesses can reliably move people, goods and services.

Close to 40% of Australia’s air freight exports pass through Melbourne Airport, and most of this travels in the belly hold of passenger aircraft. For exporters of fresh produce, high-value goods and medical supplies, reliability matters just as much as speed.

The new parallel runway system strengthens that reliability. By increasing airfield capacity and reducing congestion at peak times, it gives exporters more confidence that their goods can move as planned, even on the busiest days. That means fewer pinch points and less risk of time-sensitive goods being delayed.

Plus, new connecting taxiways will also help aircraft carrying export freight move from the apron to the runway more efficiently. This is especially important for perishable and high-value goods.

The third runway provides exporters and importers with dependable, long-term capacity they can plan around. When supply chains are tight and customers are waiting on the other side of the world, that consistency supports Victorian businesses, jobs and growth.

Strong global connections make it easier for people to study, work and build lives that span borders. For Victoria, that includes international students, repeat visitors and skilled workers who choose to make Melbourne their base.

As runway capacity increases and the airfield becomes more resilient, long-haul travel becomes more predictable.  

In practical terms, this means:

• More capacity for long-haul and connecting services, supporting the international travel needs of students, academics and visitors.

• Stronger domestic connections. With Melbourne already serving five of Australia’s 10 busiest domestic routes, the new parallel runway system will help keep services reliable while international capacity grows.

• Greater confidence for tourism, with fewer congestion-related delays helping visitors arrive and depart on schedule.

• Easier access for global talent, making it easier for skilled workers to take up opportunities in Victoria while staying connected to family and networks overseas.

As Melbourne Airport grows, the benefits extend well beyond the terminal. Building our third runway is expected to support around 37,000 more jobs by 2046, while helping Victoria stay connected to global education, tourism and workforce networks. It will also give Victorians the confidence to plan for the long term.

At a busy airport, keeping things moving smoothly matters just as much as how many flights we can handle. When schedules tighten or disruption hits elsewhere in the network, the airports that cope best are the ones with the flexibility to recover quickly.

The new runway will give Melbourne that flexibility. By easing pressure on the airfield and improving how flights are sequenced through the surrounding airspace, it will help the airport absorb disruption instead of letting delays stack up. For example, if a long-haul flight arrives late from Singapore or Auckland, the system has more capacity to catch up, rather than one delay rolling into the next.

That kind of resilience matters to airlines. Long-haul schedules rely on dependable time slots, and airports that can meet them – even in busy periods – are better positioned to attract and retain international services. That reliability is expected to deliver an estimated $5.9 billion to the state’s economy once the third runway is operational, but just as importantly, it helps ensure Melbourne can keep pace with growing global travel demand.

Projects of this scale don’t happen overnight. Long before construction begins, careful planning is needed to understand impacts, involve the right stakeholders, and put practical steps in place to inform and support the community.

That approach is shaping the project through several initiatives:

• A Noise Sharing Plan designed to spread aircraft movements across different areas outside of peak periods, so aircraft noise isn’t concentrated over a couple of communities all the time.

• A Noise Amelioration Plan to give practical support to eligible households and community buildings in Hume and Brimbank that will be most impacted by additional aircraft movements.

• An independently led Community Health Study to enhance our understanding of the potential impacts of aircraft noise on surrounding communities over time.

• Careful handling of more than 5 million cubic metres of earth, with work to manage PFAS responsibly and protect local waterways.

• Careful habitat restoration to protect and support long-term conservation efforts.

The Third Runway Project is a long-term investment in Victoria’s connectivity. Through careful planning and staged delivery, it’s designed to support growing demand for travel, trade and global connections, while maintaining the reliability passengers, airlines and exporters rely on.

Stay in touch as the project unfolds by signing up for updates. And if you have any questions, you can always send our team an email at newrunway@melair.com.au.