Lord Howe Island Airport Guide

Lord Howe Island Airport (ICAO YLHI) sits on the narrow, low-lying middle of Lord Howe Island, a World Heritage-listed island in the Tasman Sea about 600 km east of the Australian mainland. The island is part of New South Wales, and Norfolk Island is roughly 900 km to the east.

Army engineers built the single asphalt runway, 10/28, in about six months from March 1974. It measures 888 m by 30 m. The short length limits which aircraft can serve the island, and for years the Dash 8 Q200 was the only Qantas type able to land here. Portable runway lighting is available for emergencies. Before the airport opened, the island depended on flying boats from Rose Bay in Sydney.

QantasLink flew its last service on 16 May 2025. Skytrans Australia now flies the Sydney route under a Qantas codeshare, with a licence running to March 2030. Eastern Air Services flies a 10-seat Beechcraft B200 from Port Macquarie, Newcastle and the Gold Coast. Tourist beds on the island are capped at 400, so traffic stays modest at about 30,000 passenger movements a year.