Live Departures from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport (MEL), Melbourne

Melbourne Airport, still known to most locals as Tullamarine after the suburb it sits in, is Australia's second-busiest airport and the main airport for the whole state of Victoria. It handles tens of millions of passengers a year across four terminals, running international long-haul, the domestic trunk, low-cost flying and a thinner regional network from the one site about 22 kilometres north-west of the city centre.

One thing sets it apart from Sydney: there is no curfew. The airport was built to operate around the clock and the Victorian government has long protected that, so departures and freight keep moving through the small hours when most other major Australian airports have gone quiet. For travellers that means genuine early-morning and late-night departure options rather than a hard overnight stop.

The domestic side is split across three carriers and three terminals. Qantas runs its operation out of Terminal 1, Virgin Australia out of Terminal 3, and Jetstar anchors the low-cost Terminal 4 alongside Rex and other budget services. Between them they fly the busy interstate trunk routes, with regional turboprops filling in the smaller Victorian and interstate ports.

International flying concentrates in Terminal 2, where dozens of carriers connect Melbourne to Asia, the Middle East, the Pacific, North America and beyond. The long-haul map is covered by the major full-service airlines, while Jetstar and Scoot handle the leisure end. It is a true hub rather than a single-airline base, so the aircraft mix on the board ranges from narrowbodies on the short hops to A380s and 787s on the long ones.

Four terminals sit on the one footprint: T1 (Qantas domestic), T2 (international), T3 (Virgin domestic) and the standalone T4 (Jetstar and other low-cost), which is a short walk or shuttle-bus ride from the main trio. There is no train to the airport yet, an airport rail link is planned but not running, so getting there means road. SkyBus runs frequently to Southern Cross Station in the city, public buses serve the T4 ground transport hub, and the rest arrive by car, taxi or rideshare. Parking ranges from the budget Value car park with a shuttle through to terminal-front and valet options.

The departure experience is what you would expect of a major hub: full check-in and bag-drop halls, security that can back up at peak domestic and international pushes, and a proper lounge spread for those who qualify. Qantas lounges sit in T1, Virgin in T3, the international lounges including Singapore's SilverKris in T2, and Rex in T4. Allow extra time at the morning and evening peaks, and more again if you are connecting from a domestic terminal to T2 for an international flight, since that is not airside.