Airport type Public Time zone AEST (+10:00) | Serves Sydney Opened 4 August 1938 | |
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Location Rose Bay, NSW, Australia | ||
Rose Bay Water Airport (IATA: RSE) is an Australian water airport located in the Sydney suburb of Rose Bay, New South Wales. The airport is 8 kilometres (5 miles) from Sydney's central business district. It is one of two water airports serving Sydney, with the other one being Palm Beach Water Airport. The only carriers servicing the water aerodrome are Sydney Seaplanes, Sydney by Seaplane and Seawing Airways, all of which are based at Rose Bay.
Contents
History
On 4 August 1938, Rose Bay Water Airport was officially opened. However, it already had been established as a flying boat base on a 'temporary basis', and was the starting point for the London-Sydney flights that were operated by Qantas Empire Airways and Imperial Airways in a codeshare agreement. This made it Australia's first international airport. In 1942, due to the outbreak of WWII, commercial flights were suspended. Due to the arrival of passenger jetliners in the 1950s, a gradual demise in flying boats begun. In 1955, Qantas discontinued its flying boat service and sold its fleet of flying boats to Ansett Airways. Ansett continued to operate flying boat services from Rose Bay Water Airport to Lord Howe island and Norfolk Island until that was discontinued in 1974.
Facilities
Rose Bay Water Airport has a single small building to serve customers, which is managed and maintained by Sydney Aviation, the owner of Sydney Seaplanes. The facility will soon be replaced with a newer one.
Airlines and destinations
Additionally, Sydney by Seaplane and Seawing Airways, which are both trading names of trading names of Krug Agencies Pty Ltd, operate return flights to Palm beach and various other venues. However, these trips are designed with sight-seeing in mind, and are not intended to serve other purposes.