Hamilton Island Tower

Tower Information, Views and History Location - Hamilton Island, Queensland Postal Address - PO Box 313, Hamilton Island, QLD 4803 Height - 5m Date Constructed - 1984

The view from the Tower is restricted by the island terrain to the east. Magnificent otherwise.

The Tower was constructed and commissioned in 1984 when Hamiton Island Resort built their airport.

Was to be decommissioned in 1992 after the review of towers determined that the tower was not justified. Ansett then accepted financial responsibliity for Hamilton Island ATC service. Ansett, as a half owner of the aiport, was the only airline operating into Hamilton Island until October 1998 when, with the sale of Ansett's half share to the resort, Qantas started operations.

With the demise of Ansett in September 2001, Qantas is now the only airline operating into Hamilton Island, currently with 41 return flights a week from Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Cairns.

As the gateway to the Whitsunday's, Hamilton Island airport has a large mix of traffic. Qantas operates B737, B717, BA146, DH8 and occasional B767 (during school holidays) aircraft. The airport regularly sees Gulfstream 4 and 5, Canadair CL60 and other Bizjet type aircraft on private flights. With B737 and B757 on International charter flights.

Local operators use helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and floatplanes. There are yearly movements of around 30,000 aircraft.

The tower is owned by Hamilton Island Airport and staffed by Airservices Australia.

Facilities

There is a single-grooved runway, 32/14. Non-precision instrument approaches are served by VOR, DME and NDB. There are GPS approach procedures for both runways