Canberra International Airport – CBR

Lovely little airport. Gates are all in short walking distance. Personnel is quite fussy when it comes to excess luggage. While the Singapore airlines lady in Frankfurt didn’t even mention the 2 kg I had on the inbound flight, the 3,5 kg on the outbound flight were charged as 4 kg for 286 AUD in total.
I also had two domestic flights starting from here, one to Adelaide and one to Brisbane. For my taste, the people at the counters work too slow and talk to much unimportant stuff. Would also have been nice if the counter ladies could take their place before 5 am if the service starts at 5 am.
I also don’t like the bored security people who always choose me for their explosives check.
If you want to make the most of your stay, you should grab a seat close to the Quantas lounge during your waiting time. Their WiFi does not require a password, whereas the Virgin lounge WiFi does ;-)

Imagine a clean room… like a scientific one with no dust or germs etc.
That’s Canberra International airport.
Yes. The facilities are new and clean.
+ security is a breeze to get through
+ easy to navigate
+ very close to the city center
But the airport lacks character and INTERNET. No internet?
— there’s really nothing to do in the airport
— no wifi

Canberra International Airport is a great mystery to me. For starters, it’s called an «international» airport but there are no actual international flights out of Canberra. What’s going on here? Did someone make a mistake? Or, Is the name merely aspirational? «Someday we will have an international airport.» «We’re not there yet but by god we’re trying!»
It is hard to think of another national capital that doesn’t have any international flights in or out. Maybe Ottawa? Nope, several flights a day to the US. Perhaps Pyongang? Wrong again. Even they have flights to Beijing.
Beyond the mind bendingly confusing name (what it could possibly mean? do Canberrans consider Queensland or WA international destinations?) you can count on one hand the options if you want something to eat or drink. Woe to you if you end up stuck at this airport. Once I got stuck there for 8 hours and there is bugger all to do. As some of the other posters noticed you can get free wi-​fi if you sit outside the Qantas lounge but there is no airport wifi. I suspect this has something to do with Qantas or Virgin lobbying to make the airport horrible so travelers would be forced to get lounge memberships.
Sure, it is easy to make fun of Canberra, but that doesn’t make any less worth doing. Sometimes cheap shots are worth taking. Never in the history of the world has a city tried so hard and spent so much money to be so mediocre. The same is true of the airport.

It’s a very new and modern looking airport compared to the rest of Australia. Bonus is it isn’t far from the city.
Though as others have mentioned, I wouldn’t want to be slumming it out of the lounges. Reason being the lack of shops, and free wifi (the lounge fixes this problem).
The Qantas Lounge, I think is one of the best lounges out of Sydney and Melbourne (The Sydney Business domestic lounge is actually quite good). Good enough to impress the local politician population who still fly commercial I guess.
So if you’re here (most likely) for business purposes (what else would you be doing in Canberra?!), make sure are flying Qantas (It’s un-​australian if you aren’t) and flying business class (good luck getting a business class seat Monday morning or Friday evening), have a qantas club membership (I believe it’s tax deductible), or have an appropriate status in Qantas /​OneWorld.
The strange thing about this airport though is it’s an «International Airport» but it doesn’t seem to process international flights — even though Canberra is Australia’s nation capital.

Canberra airport had a massive overhaul to create a bigger, newer, shinier building to do nothing in. Did they add anything of interest to the airport at all while extending it? If they did, I didn’t notice.
Like most of the smaller cities in Australia, Canberra is one of the airports that you never want to be stuck at for any length of time because there’s only a small handful of shops and crappy expensive food/​drink options to keep you amused.
On the upside, we found check-​in and getting through security super fast and efficient. A lot of seasoned business travellers come through Canberra, so there’s a lot less stuffing around than most.
Fun fact: There’s a floor window that shows you the luggage conveyor belt. Not very interesting to look at, but sit back and watch small children and old people lose their minds…

The airport itself is lovely — new (ish), bright, clean, quiet. The food choices are okay considering you likely won’t be here too long. That’s all great, and physically it’s one of the best airports in Australia, if not the world. And the whole concourse/​terminal has great views of the runway, should you love planes as much as me.
Other aspects could be improved. The closest thing to public transit is a taxi, which can be $ 25+ to the city. There are plenty of them available, though (as one taxi driver told me — there are too many taxis in Canberra for the number of people). A couple of bus lines would really do well here, and I don’t understand why it’s lacking. Also, while I was able to sit at a certain gate and grab free WiFi from the Qantas Club, the airport appears to lack free WiFi throughout. How is it that Sydney can have it, but the small and modern Canberra cannot?
So as you see, I am mixed on this airport. Physcially, I love it. The rest… not so much.

The airport has had a major overhaul in the last 12 months and has joined the 21^st century. Sleek and modern, it has some great modern art outside the building, before you enter.
There are two key carriers flying out of this airport: Qantas & Virgin along with some of their subsidiaries. Their terminal is basically split in half with Qantas at one end and Virgin at the other. This is mirrored at front of house where you check in and back of house once you’ve cleared security with gates and clubs for respective airlines at either end of the terminal. Plenty of coffee shops, newsagents etc to waste your money in whilst waiting for your plane.
When arriving, car companies and taxis are located on the ground floor, right beside the luggage carousels. Taxis are well managed by the taxi supervisors. Expect to pay about $ 20 — $ 25 to get to Civic (the CBD).

This is visitors’ first impression of Canberra. Mine was ‘small’. Coming from Brisbane, I kind of expected more. Then I googled comparison populations. Oh, that’s why.
Canberra airport is pretty close to the city centre of Canberra, but then, a lot of Canberra is pretty close to the city centre when you’re looking at an area this size. The civil infrastructure just makes the mind boggle with how efficient it is to get from one place to another, so even if you’re being accommodated on the outskirts of the territory, it’s really not that far.
Ambience *****
It’s a very clean, shiny airport. Nothing looks old and worn, in fact to date there is still some construction going on for I don’t know what. The handful of shopping and eatery venues are tidy and well-​staffed, the toilets clean and sensor driven (no touching other peoples’ germy buttons is +5 for me!).
Service ****
Well, the only service I had to worry myself with was the hire car company, Europcar. The girl was quick and efficient, much like my arrival, and had us away, key-​in-​hand before I knew it.
Overall
Much like my review, Canberra airport is short and to the point. There isn’t anything amiss yet, and I have no doubt if they find a need for it in future it will be adeptly installed. It isn’t anything to write home about, it doesn’t have the pizzazz some airports have, but it’s likeness to the nation’s capital is spot on from what I’ve experienced so far.

Canberra is a tiny place for a national capital, and the airport matches this description. I was flying domestically on my one visit here, and I had a very fine flat white while waiting for a flight to Melbourne. What more can one say?

Small, easy, and clean. Not must else to ask for.