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Darwin's $60m airport expansion put on hold

Darwin Airport says it has been forced to put a $60 million terminal expansion plan on hold because it could not reach an agreement with budget airline Jetstar.

The expansion was aimed at turning Darwin into a Jetstar hub that could have boosted the airline's international flights from three to seven per day.

Darwin Airport chief executive, Ian Kew, says there is still room for Jetstar to increase international flights from Darwin.

"At the moment they're not doing the full three a day, they are only doing 17 a week," he said.

"So we can easily take that up to 21 plus [per week], so there's quite an increase in capacity that is available there at the moment."

He blamed the collapse in talks on tough economic conditions within the airline industry.

"Times are tough out there," he said.

"We've seen that all airlines are finding their yields falling and the number of passengers travelling falling.

"So the conditions probably just weren't right for both the airport and the airlines to move forward with this expansion."

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