After more than a decade of campaigning, we weren’t going to miss the opening of the new bikeway between Viola Place at Brisbane Airport and Schneider Road, Eagle Farm. We were waiting at the gate when, around 11am on 23rd January 2026, final inspections were completed and the fences came down. We were first to officially to ride the new bikeway!

This new 600m path delivered by Brisbane City Council closes a key gap in the cycle network and makes it safer and easier to ride, walk or roll to and through Brisbane Airport. Around 25,000 people travel to Brisbane Airport each day for work, and that number is expected to grow by around 20,000 over the next 20 years.

Even though it’s only short, the link is a game-changer for many people wanting to ride to work at the Brisbane Airport precinct, or to reach bikeways on the north-side from south of the Brisbane River via the Gateway Bridge Bikeway. The bikeway is a key link in the Moreton Bay Cycleway, and will make for a much smoother and safer trip for people who previously had to brave riding on Sugarmill or Nudgee Roads.

A few days after it officially opened, Brisbane Airport celebrated the new bikeway with a coffee van for commuters. Brisbane City Council was represented by Northgate Ward councillor, Councillor Adam Allan and Cr Ryan Murphy who returns to his role as Infrastructure Chair (welcome back!). It was great to be joined by Matt, Andrew and Mike from Bicycle Queensland, and ABC Brisbane Radio to talk about the significance of the new path.

For Mitch (and Brenda Bones) from Airport BUG, and Belinda from East BUG, there have been many times over the last 12 years when we despaired of this connection ever being open, so it’s fantastic to finally be able to ride it! Well done to the Council team who made this into reality, and thanks to the Brisbane Airport Corporation for supporting active transport.

Later, we returned in the evening to check out the lighting, and found the new solar lights very effective making this route feel safe at night. We did discover that 2 of the lights weren’t operating (which we reported to Brisbane City Council), but the path still felt comfortable.

We hope this can become the standard for bikeway lighting in open environments (i.e. where the panels are not shaded all day), as solar lights should be quicker to install, faster to repair/replace after flooding, and won’t suffer the problems of cable-theft which have left a number of important routes in total darkness for months.