Bumper King’s Birthday Long Weekend at Brisbane Airport

2023-09-28

Thousands of NRL and AFL fans on the move
Travellers make most of King’s Birthday long weekend
End of school holidays for QLD and VIC
Spring break for SA, TAS, NSW, ACT, WA, NT

The first King’s Birthday long weekend in Queensland in 72 years will see a bumper weekend of travel as Queensland AFL and NRL fans flock south for Grand Finals, and Queenslanders return home following a spring school holiday break.

More than 340,000 passengers are forecast to travel through BNE over the four days from today through to Monday, across the domestic and international terminals.

School holidays are ending for Queenslanders and Victorians, while the rest of the country is on school holidays, but it is the surge in travel for the footy finals which is packing out flights to southern capitals.

There are 177 scheduled flights from Brisbane to Sydney from Thursday to Sunday and 148 from Brisbane to Melbourne.

"The exodus begins today with 58-thousand domestic passengers on the move through Brisbane Airport. Many flights to Melbourne are booked out, with Lions’ fans eager to get to Victoria for the Grand Final. There are more seats available to Sydney for the NRL, but obviously any remaining flights to both Grand Final cities are selling at a premium, due to the heavy demand," according to Stephen Beckett, Head of Public Affairs at Brisbane Airport.

Domestic Terminal Passenger Forecasts

Thursday 28 September: 58,283
Friday 29 September: 58,106
Saturday 30 September: 49,049
Sunday 1 October: 46,479
Monday 2 October: 58,860

This Friday is forecast to be the second busiest day in the Domestic Terminal since before the pandemic. The busiest day since 2019 was last Friday when ARL and NRL fans jetted into Brisbane boosting the total number of passengers to 60,017.

"With the first King’s Birthday long weekend since 1951 combining with an incredible weekend for Queensland sport, this is set to be a weekend to remember. The Lions departed today, and Broncos flew out yesterday. We know the celebrations will be wild when both teams return home with their trophies."