Justin Wastnage

Justin Wastnage is the principal at aviation and tourism policy consultancy Message Shapers. In this position he has led research projects into cruise ship access options for Sydney Harbour, air transport access to New Caledonia and work around privatisation of council-owned airports in New South Wales.

Until Covid, Justin was a non-resident research fellow in the Innovation and Entreprenuership Stream within the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. In this role, he authored two landmark papers on the industrial case for the development of Western Sydney Airport, one of which was released by the NSW Government. Justin was also previously on the board of Aviation/Aerospace Australia, the country’s peak body for the aviation and aerospace industries.

Previously, Justin was the director of aviation policy at the Australian industry group Tourism & Transport Forum. In this role he led several successful research projects around issues including the Australian-New Zealand air transport market, the impact of visa facilitation on air transport demand to Australia, and the integration of public transport to airport precincts.

Prior to this, Justin worked for more than ten years in aviation and travel journalism across Europe, Asia and Australia.