Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport is a mostly general aviation airport for light aircraft located in between the southern Melbourne suburbs of Heatherton, Cheltenham, Dingley Village and Mentone. It also receives commercial airline service. The airport grounds are treated as their own suburb, and share the postcode 3194 with the neighbouring suburb of Mentone. With a total of 274,082 aircraft movements, Moorabbin Airport was the second busiest airport in Australia for the calendar year 2011.

History

By 1946, Essendon Airport was Australia's busiest airport and Melbourne's only public airport, but was becoming congested even before expansion plans for Essendon were announced. Funding for the construction of a secondary airport was announced by Prime Minister Ben Chifley on 6 November 1946. The control tower opened on 15 December 1949 for training. Originally the intent was to name the airport "Mentone" but this was abandoned after a potential clash with the then French airport in Menton. Similarly, Cheltenham was discarded due to similarities to the Gloucestershire Airport near Cheltenham in South West England. The name comes from City of Moorabbin, the municipality in which it was then situated. The control tower opened on 15 December 1949 and flying commenced on 31 December. The airport was renamed to Moorabbin (Harry Hawker) Airport on 22 January 1989, after pioneering Australian aviator Harry George Hawker, on the centenary date of Hawker's birth.

Accidents and incidents

Facilities

Moorabbin Airport, one of four in the city, serves the general aviation needs for the south-eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has five intersecting runways, the longest being Runway 17L/35R with a length of 1335 m. Usually, two parallel runways are used at the same time. The airport also has a control tower. The airport is home to the Royal Victorian Aero Club, the Australian National Aviation Museum and several flight training facilities, including a campus of multinational pilot training organization CAE Oxford Aviation Academy.

Airlines and destinations

Master plan

The master plan for Moorabbin Airport was approved by the federal Minister for Infrastructure Anthony Albanese MP, on 25 June 2010. The master plan provides a twenty-year horizon detailing the development of the airport and associated infrastructure. A draft Major Development Plan for Moorabbin Airport drawn up by the Australian company Wesfarmers was refused by Albanese, on 5 August 2013. The draft plan was for the development of large retail outlets on 4.8 hectares of airport land at the corner of Centre Dandenong Road and Boundary Road. The proposal had a floor area of 14,500m2.