Sydney Airport has bought back the lease of domestic terminal 3 from Qantas Airways for $535m, effective from 1 September.
The deal comes four years before the airways’ 30-year lease of the terminal expires in June 2019, but allows Qantas to manage it until that period.
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Qantas will continue to have exclusive user rights on the terminal through 2019, after which it will retain priority usage of the gates, check-in and baggage facilities until 2025.
A per-passenger charge will be imposed on Qantas with effect from 1 September.
The terminal services around ten million passengers annually.
Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said: "This deal secures Qantas’ long-term position in our largest hub, ensuring priority usage as the primary airline customer of Sydney’s terminal 3.
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"We now have certainty about our future operations in terminal 3 post-2019, and an outcome that is a win-win for both Qantas and Sydney Airport."
The airways and the airport have also signed a five-year deal over domestic runway charges and international aeronautical charges.
Qantas is planning sale of leases at Melbourne and Perth airports, after selling one at Brisbane airport for $112m in February 2014.
The sale comes a few days after Qantas announced a multi-million dollar refurbishment of its lounges at the Brisbane airport.
A new lounge precinct is planned to be constructed to increase the domestic terminal expansion by 30%, with the redesign of the existing Qantas Club and construction of a new business lounge and chairman’s lounge.
The first and business lounges in the international terminal at Brisbane will be redesigned to create a single lounge.
Image: Qantas will retain its exclusive rights on the terminal until 2019. Photo: courtesy of Sydney Airport.
