LOUNGE REVIEW: Adelaide Qantas Business Class lounge — ceiling leaks already

This is my first visit to the new Qantas Business Lounge at Adelaide Airport, which opened earlier this year, and was carved out of the old Qantas Club.

Background

For many years, Adelaide didn’t have a dedicated Qantas Business Class lounge. In August 2022, Qantas first announced plans to redevelop its Adelaide ‘lounge precinct’. This included the refurbishment of the Qantas Club and the Chairman’s Lounge into three areas: a Club, a Chairman’s Lounge, and a new domestic Business Lounge.

In November 2024, the refurbished Qantas Club reopened with new interiors, more power outlets, wireless chargers and seating upgrades, as the first stage of the precinct redevelopment.

The new Qantas Domestic Business Lounge officially opened on 16 May 2025. It’s the first time Adelaide has had a dedicated business lounge. It covers about 1,016 square metres and includes Market Kitchen, inspired by the Adelaide Central Market, showers, barista coffee, and all the usual facilities of a Qantas business lounge.

Its opening marks the completion of the Adelaide Airport lounge precinct upgrade.

Entrance

You now enter a Qantas Lounge Precinct, which houses the Business, Club, and Chairman’s lounge. The entrance is huge, wide, and long. The use of space is luxurious. I can see this being compromised real soon, once the Business Lounge fills, as it was on the Sunday afternoon of a long weekend in October ’25.

Location

The new Precinct is in the same place as the old club, that is, to your right after security, opposite Gate 21/22. It’s wide, with a lighted Qantas logo that is unmissable. The entrance leads to both the Club Lounge, the Business Lounge, and presumably the Chairman’s Lounge, although I didn’t see that ‘private’ entrance.

The entrance leads to two desks, one for the Club Lounge and, further along, the Business Lounge. On my visit, only the Club Lounge desk was staffed, so our tickets were checked there. On a later visit, when the Business desk was staffed, we presented ourselves to the Club desk, and were treated to a good-natured ‘no, not here, we are too humble’ and directed to the Business desk.

Design

The design is David Caon’s blond, pale, light-filled vision for Qantas. While his designs are contemporary and relaxing, I think they lack the vision, individuality and intensity of Marc Newson, the previous design visionary at Qantas.

It’s true that Newson’s designs are beginning to show their age and need a refresh. Some of his design elements, like those lounge chairs, have become classics but are nowhere to be seen in the new lounge concept. It’s a pity, because they did a bunch of things that the new lounges don’t do. And, at least two of those elements are kind of essential. Yes, I’m talking comfort and armrests.

Let me be more positive. The new lounges make it easy to access the side tables, which now feature contact charging and power points. The dividers are also great, adding a greater feeling of privacy and division to the space. The chairs themselves are not so comfy, and are already showing some wear and tear. The armed lounge chairs – seen below near the window look more comfortable, but I didn’t get a chance to try them.

There are however a great many choices for seating styles, which adds variety to the options for members.

Food & Drink

Food and self-serve beverages are concentrated in one area, including a signature ‘Adelaide Market’ offering. Melbourne has its soup and dumplings, Perth has its Pizza, and now Adelaide has two kinds of Lasagna.

I’m not entirely on board with the terracotta and brick theme, but the area works well, and was patronised well while I was there. For those looking for something substantial to eat, this is a great option.

If snacking or even a toastie is more your style, then there is the usual self service section available, including some hot soup, machine coffee, and limited wine offering. For more extensive options, head to the bar.

Overall its pretty comprehensive offering, much better than the previous lounge. However will they do runs of samosas or party pies, or even expresso shots as they did in the previous lounge? We shall see.

Bathrooms

The bathrooms for the Business Lounge are located at the back, near the lounge entrance. The male bathrooms feature a wall of four or so shower stalls, and then to the right a suite of urinals, and on the left, toilet stalls.

The look continues the pale wood theme, together with reddish terracotta terrazzo bench tops and tiles. Taps are automatic with concealed hand dryers. Soap and hand lotion dispensers are wall-mounted, along with plentiful power points.

Don’t get me wrong, these are nice facilities; however, the construction just doesn’t seem to be up to the standard of the previous bathrooms. Compare the details in the image below with those in the former Chairman’s Lounge in Adelaide. Joins between different materials are flush, without the use of framing, screws, or rivets. See if you agree.

The overall feel is spacious and well proportioned. I am not sure I am a fan of these fleshy reds and terracotta, but the design and colour scheme are coherent.

Comfort

There is a lot of choice in the seating available. You can choose from high tables with bar seating, armless lounge chairs with adjacent tables and contact charging ports. There are armed chairs and small and large booths, too.

We sat in the armless lounge chairs similar to the ones pictured above and below. They are comfortable, but they don’t have arms. Apparently, I like an armchair. I haven’t tried the other seating, but the booths (below) look attractive

What isn’t present is a more private workspace. I mean somewhere, where the whole lounge can’t see your screen. I think that visual and audio privacy is missing. For example, it would have been a good option for the guy in the Sydney Qantas Business Lounge who had a Zoom call, during which he explained that he couldn’t pay his employees until after a certain date because his wife’s lawyers were after the same money in his divorce settlement. That is a fact that presumably he would’ve preferred not to broadcast to the entire lounge!

Departure

One advantage of the small size of the Adelaide Airport is that it’s usually a very short walk to your gate, which is often 21 or 22, virtually opposite the lounge. We got a pleasant travel well-wish from the counter staff on our exit. Our gate was steps away, and we joined the usual awkward semi-formed queue around the Group One, premium sign.

We had happily killed an hour or so, with a couple of gin and tonics, pleasant surroundings, and recharged phones.

2PAXfly Takeout

Let me start by saying that I was a fan of the old lounge for its size and openness, and its triple island workspaces. I have spent many an hour writing blog posts from those desks. I also liked the democracy of having a combined business and club lounge.

When travelling with my husband, we had a favourite space with pairs of lounge chairs around a coffee table, just beyond a dividing wall, about where the main seating area of the new Business Lounge now sits. Despite its ageing furniture, I will miss that.

But let’s turn to the new lounge. The view is little improved; it still looks out over a combined building site, car and small plane parking area. No runway views here. The new fit-out is modern and comfortable, with its plentiful power outlets and tabletop power chargers. The variety of seating areas is much appreciated, although the lack of private work spaces is regretted. The bar is much improved in both product, size and design.

I do miss more armed lounge chairs. There are some, but not many. I also miss those Marc Newson lounges. They are pleasant to the eye, and very comfortable to sit in. The current ones in the Adelaide Business lounge, not so much. I worry about how the pale leather and carpet will age. The early signs are not good.

On the food front, this is much improved. Both the self-serve and the new Market Kitchen are excellent innovations. I had come straight from family lunches on both my last visits, so didn’t sample its wares, but on both occasions the offering looked very tempting.

Adelaide, because of family connections, is a frequent destination, so I will be spending quite a bit of time in this lounge over the next few years. It’s also slightly the ‘shock of the new’. I’m sure it will grow on me, and evolve as it adapts to premium frequent flyers needs.

PS — On my next visit that ceiling leak had been fixed.