Since the COVID restrictions were relaxed, I have been going back to Japan twice a year these days.
Jetstar Airways used to have direct flights from the Gold Coast to Narita, but they have decided to suspend those flights at the end of October this year. Instead, they will start flying direct from Brisbane to Narita. They are also going to start direct flights from Brisbane to Kansai Airport in February next year. It was good news for people who live in Brisbane, but it wasn’t good news for me, a resident of the Gold Coast. As soon as the news was announced, there was a prolonged discussion about it among my friends and acquaintances. Australia is surprisingly far from Japan and even a direct flight takes about 8 and a half hours. When you include getting to and from the airport, it takes a whole day.
All this despite the prospect of lots of people coming from Japan for sightseeing. They are extending the tram lines on the Gold Coast at the moment, but the timing of this suspension of flights from the Gold Coast is disappointing given that you will eventually be able to go by tram from the Gold Coast’s airport to Surfers Paradise in the city center.
Plus, the airport on the Gold Coast only just finished a nice expansion of the international terminal last year, and that makes me feel even more that it was a bit of a waste. What’s more, Scoot, a Singapore-based low-cost carrier (LCC), is also going to pull out flights to and from the Gold Coast, which might mean that the flights to New Zealand will be the only ones using the international terminal, which they’ve gone and spent money on to make it bigger and nicer. It looks as though it will still be a long time until I will be able to take direct flights to different countries, like the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne. Or on the contrary, it could be that in future the new international terminal is used less and less and starts getting so quiet that they use it for some other purpose.
By the way, it takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes by car from the Gold Coast to Brisbane Airport, or about 2 hours by train.
Something I think often happens to Japanese people living in Australia when they visit Japan is that on the way to Japan your luggage is full of souvenirs for people in Japan, but relatively speaking, it’s not all that heavy, while on the way back you stuff your suitcases full of all sorts of things you’ve gone and bought in Japan. In my case, my checked luggage is 25 kg going to Japan, but 40 kg on the flight from Narita. That means taking my 40 kg of luggage on the train from Brisbane Airport then a bus or taxi takes about the same amount of time and effort as it does to get from my family home in Japan to Narita Airport. My family home is to the west from Narita Airport, going in the opposite direction, so because the airport shuttle bus service from there was suspended recently, I take the train to Shinjuku, and the airport shuttle bus from there. And when I arrive at Narita from Australia too, it ends up taking a ridiculous amount of time if I wind up missing the Narita Express train.
You might not know if you don’t use low-cost carriers much, but Jetstar Airways flights between the Gold Coast and Japan are cancelled or delayed quite a bit more frequently than other airlines.
When I think of going through the whole series of steps involved in taking myself that bit further to Brisbane Airport in future, it will take quite a lot of energy and physical strength to get to Japan.
Maybe it has been too easy for me up till now, but I hope that the day when direct flights to and from the Gold Coast resume comes as soon as possible.