Inside the airport terminal where there are no lines and no waiting for your bag

Wednesday, 24 June 2026

At the private terminal on the Gold Coast, customs and immigration officers come to the lounge or board the aircraft directly to check passports.

The terminal handles high-end aircraft including modified Boeing 737 business jets equipped with multiple bedrooms, dining rooms, kitchens, and full bathrooms.

Private aviation traffic in NZ is growing, increasing every year aside from 2020 and 2021.

When pop royalty or the actual royal family land on the Gold Coast, they don't rub shoulders with regular travellers at the baggage carousel.

Instead, they disembark down the road at the Platinum Business Aviation Centre, a private aviation terminal at Gold Coast Airport, which has spent the past 15 years quietly catering to the world's elite.

Despite the wealth passing through its doors, the terminal itself is understated. The newly styled Mondrian Lounge is more like a reception with plush couches, a coffee machine and bottles of champagne.

This fixed-base operator (FBO), as private terminals are known in the industry, doesn’t look anything like an airport as you know it.

There are no passport control machines and no fixed customs points, just a plane on the tarmac.

Instead, customs and immigration officers come to the aviation centre and check the passports on board or in the lounge.

Avoiding the airport lines is one of the main reasons people fly private, general manager Joe Stenning said while taking Stuff on a tour.

That seamlessness is on display when a family is driven directly to the small terminal’s doors and, with a polite “Good morning”, they head out to their plane, their luggage following behind.

Others who use the terminal, Stenning said, can take a business meeting or relax with a champagne while waiting for the rest of their entourage.

Billionaires, corporate travellers and major celebrities often disembark here, walking through the private hangar into a waiting vehicle.

“If you've got money, you've probably been through here,” Stenning said. Yet he noted that you wouldn’t recognise most of the people passing through.

“It's not just for the super wealthy and the celebrities.”

For many business people, generally those who have to consider every minute of their day, it was about being able to fly when it suits them, he said.

The Gold Coast’s geographical position makes it a strategic powerhouse for private flight paths. As the farthest major airport on the Australian east coast with full customs and quarantine capabilities, it serves as the ultimate launching pad for the Pacific.

“When you go to New Zealand, or you're going across to Hawaii, this is a good place to start from because of how the winds and flight paths work. It reduces the flight time,” Stenning said.

The terminal handles a variety of private aircraft, ranging from the Global 7500 to private modifications of Boeing 737 business jets, which often have multiple bedrooms, dining rooms, a kitchen and full bathrooms on board.

For the first time at the Gold Coast airport, a 23-passenger private Boeing 767 is scheduled to arrive next week. Stenning expected planespotters to be out in force taking photos.

They aren't the only ones often lining the perimeter. The terminal manages intense crowds of fans and paparazzi standing along the fences down the private access road when major bands visit the region.

Stenning said some celebrities go over to the fence and say hi, but it doesn’t happen often.

The demands on Platinum’s staff can be intense, particularly when royalty or diplomats come to town, but also to meet catering standards, which, just like the planes themselves, often come with a big bill.

The flight attendants want perfection for their client so ask the Platinum team to source specific food and drinks for on board, such as “half and half” (a blend of whole milk and light cream) that is uncommon in Australia and New Zealand, but a staple for coffee in the United States.

Stenning said private aviation was far more widespread than the public realises, with most large airports around the world having FBOs.

The number of arrivals and departures of private aircraft in New Zealand had grown each year for the 10 years from 2014, apart from the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, according to data from Customs.

In New Zealand, there are FBOs at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Queenstown and Hawke's Bay airports.

If a private jet wishes to land at a smaller regional airport, FBO teams will be sent to meet the aircraft.

All of this unfolds just a few hundred metres away from the crowds. While everyday travellers are lining up at security or wandering through duty-free, a whole separate world is quietly taking flight in the very same sky.