The latest traffic figures show an average of 47,802 vehicles using the 6.7 kilometre Airport Link each day, about half of the original forecasts which had daily traffic of 90,000 vehicles. BrisConnection conceded in the ASX statement that an extensive marketing and phased-in toll regime had failed to attract enough traffic but Non-Executive Chairman Trevor Rowe was still positive about the future of the tunnel. ‘‘It’s disappointing that the board has to reach this decision,’’ he said. ‘‘The AiportlinkM7 is unquestionably a world class piece of transport infrastructure that will continue to support Brisbane’s growth into the decades ahead.’’ BrisConnections was placed into a trading halt in November and two board directors resigned after a dismal report to the ASX on Airport Link.

In the report, the company admitted for the first time the tunnel’s debt might be more than its value and a research analyst said at the time the most likely option for the Airport Link was to put it up for sale. The tunnel had a toll free period which ended in October last year with traffic forecasts falling tens of thousands of vehicles short even when the ride was free. The costs of building Airport Link blew out so much for construction company Leighton Holdings that it contributed to them posting a yearly loss of more than $200 million which has been turned around to a $450 million profit since it handed over the tunnel and its other high profile troubled project, the Victorian desalination plant. Airport Link was opened in July 2012 and connects Brisbane’s northern suburbs with Brisbane’s CBD and the airport, the Clem7 and the Inner City Bypass. The tunnel will remain open and available to users as normal.

Airport Link is the second Brisbane tunnel to financially collapse with the operator of Clem7, RiverCity Motorway Group, going into receivorship in November with $1.3 billion worth of debts. News of Airport Link's collapse forced Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to defend Brisbane City Council's decision to push ahead with the city’s third toll tunnel, the $1.5 billion Legacy Way tunnel. Council's Opposition Leader Cr Milton Dick had asked whether the project would become a black hole on the council's books. "The premise behind traffic projections undertaken for Clem7 and undertaken for Airport Link vary significantly for that of Legacy Way," Cr Quirk said. The Lord Mayor said Clem7 consultants predicted it would open with 60,000 vehicles a day before carrying 100,000 vehicles a day within two years.

Cr Quirk said Airport Link's traffic was predicted to be "in excess of 100,000’’ vehicles. "By contrast with Legacy Way, we are talking about 24,000 vehicles," he said. "There's a stark contrast between what this council has proposed for Legacy Way and the types of numbers that the types of numbers that the private consortiums in very buoyant times were predicting for Airport Link and Clem7." Loading Cr Quirk criticised Cr Dick and Labor councillors for backing away from the two projects which were originally proposed as the North South Bypass Tunnel by their former lord mayor Jim Soorley.

Deputy Mayor Adrian Schrinner reminded Labor councillors that Federal Labor had provided $500 million to help fund Legacy Way, and it was approved by the previous Labor state government.