DH-114 at Alice Springs, early 1970s On 5 October 1921, the first aircraft landed at the original airport located in the Alice Springs township.
Connellan Airways (later to become Connair) was based there from 1939. The military buildup in the north of Australia in the late 1930s saw the need for an airport that could take larger and heavier aircraft. This led to the construction of Seven Mile Aerodrome and the diminished role of the Town Site Drome from 1946 until its eventual abandonment in 1968. It is now the site of the
Central Australian Aviation Museum. The original North South runway was along Memorial Drive, which runs along the front of the Aviation museum, whereas the original East West runway was along the nearby residential street of Van Senden Avenue Seven Mile Aerodrome was originally built in 1940 by the Australian
Department of Defence and was used primarily by the
Royal Australian Air Force and the
United States Air Force, to bring troops and supplies into the area. The airport became the main transit base for RAAF transport planes during
World War II. Several civilian aircraft were permitted at the airport, but during the war its primary purpose was military as a refuelling and staging facility, as the airport was strategically located near the
Pacific Theater of Operations. No. 57 Operational Base Unit (RAAF) ran and maintained the aerodrome. In 1958, it officially became Alice Springs Airport. The main runway was extended to its present length of in 1961.
Units based at Seven Mile Aerodrome • No. 57 Operational Base Unit RAAF ran and maintained the aerodrome during World War II. •
No. 87 Squadron RAAF was based at the aerodrome for a period of time to undertake aerial topographic survey work during World War II.
1972 hijacking Alice Springs Airport was the site of the resolution of Australia's second domestic
aircraft hijacking. On 15 November 1972, an
Ansett Fokker F27 Friendship was hijacked after taking off from
Adelaide Airport. The hijacker, Miloslav Hrabinec, threatened the pilot with a rifle and demanded to be given a
parachute and flown to the desert. He was persuaded to allow the plane to land at its intended destination of Alice Springs, where he engaged in a shoot-out with
Northern Territory Police, critically wounding a police officer before shooting himself in the head.
1977 suicide pilot Four years later, another incident occurred on 5 January 1977, when a former employee of Connair, Colin Richard Forman, flew a stolen aircraft into the Connair offices (formerly Connellan Airways) located at the airport, killing himself and three of the airline's employees on the ground. A woman working in the offices suffered severe burns and died several days later.
Privatisation and development On 1 April 1989, the
Federal Airports Corporation (FAC) assumed control of the airport. On 10 June 1998, the
Government of Australia granted a 50-year lease plus a 49-year option to Northern Territory Airports Pty Ltd. Northern Territory Airports is 100% owned by Airport Developments Group (which also operates
Tennant Creek Airport). Northern Territory Airports Pty Ltd has 100% ownership of Alice Springs Airport Pty Ltd (along with the
Darwin International Airport). Frequent visitor to Alice Springs, British businessman
Alistair McAlpine (1942–2014), wrote in his memoir of the impression the new airport had on him in a May 1994 visit: Only when I climbed down the airport steps did I begin to think I had come to the wrong place. A sign said 'International Airport' and that is what I saw. Gone were the collection of buildings stitched together that had passed for a terminal. In front of me was the modern airport building–there was no longer a grubby bar with grubby customers where sweat and stubble mixed with ice-cold beer; the flies had gone too. The cafeteria could seat a hundred and needed to, for planes arrived every few minutes instead of once or twice a day (..) The days when the population of 'The Alice' came to the airport for a beer and to wonder at the miracle of flight are long gone.
Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage On 27 May 2011, it was announced that Alice Springs Airport had been selected to be the first large-scale
aircraft boneyard outside the United States. The facility, which commenced operation in June 2014, is operated by Asia Pacific Aircraft Storage Ltd. APAS chose Alice Springs because its dry, arid climate is perfect for aircraft storage and preservation. The facility will store commercial aircraft not in use, as well as those planes that have been decommissioned from service and which will be stripped of parts to be recycled, such as engines, electronics and wiring. As a result of the
COVID-19 pandemic, various overseas airlines including
Singapore Airlines,
Scoot,
NokScoot (now defunct),
Fiji Airways,
Cebu Pacific,
Garuda Indonesia,
Cathay Dragon (now defunct) and
Cathay Pacific were storing their aircraft in the facility. On 30 September 2020, it was announced that the facility was close to its current capacity and would be expanded from around 100 aircraft to up to 200 aircraft. ==Airlines and destinations==