A report has confirmed that Sydney Airport saw a total of 3.06 million passengers pass through its terminals in June 2023, 89.9 percent compared to pre-pandemic figures of June 2019.
Passenger Traffic is continuing to grow at the T1 international terminal, with 1.6 million travellers passing through, almost half a million more than June 2022, and a recovery of almost 88.8 percent since 2019.
There has also been a rise in domestic travelling from Sydney as well, with a 1.2 percent year-on-year increase to 1.9 million travellers in June 2023, restoring 90.6 percent of pre-pandemic numbers. New Zealand travellers make up the highest foreign nationality travelling through Sydney Airport. In contrast, Indian and South Korean travellers are the only nationalities to be showing a surplus of visitation at one percent each.
Chinese visitation has remained a major player at Sydney Airport, as flight occupancy across the seven airlines that directly fly between Sydney and mainland China continues to surge.
A 69 percent recovery rate on pre-pandemic levels from China in June is a significant jump from May 2023 levels, when the recovery rate was only 54 percent, and Chinese visitation numbers were only 22 percent.
Sydney Airport CEO, Geoff Culvert said that international passenger numbers are now closing in on pre-pandemic levels with strong demand on the mainland China route, helping drive the recovery.
“To see the Chinese visitor market 69 per cent recovered within six months of the border reopening is a phenomenal result. As demand grows, the seven Chinese carriers operating out of Sydney are continuing to add capacity, with 51 return services now flying weekly,” said Culvert.
The international passenger recovery is close to surpassing the domestic recovery, which has remained largely motionless over the past year. June domestic passenger arrivals were almost on par with 2022 recordings; there is momentum gaining from international traffic, and was up 66.7 percent. Culvert said that steep airfares and high cancellation rates on popular routes are suppressing demand.
“It will be interesting to see if this is a long-term trend. If incumbent airlines have decided to fly less between key domestic markets, then they should relinquish slots to domestic and international carriers who want to operate out of Sydney Airport and provide more choice for customers.”
In the past 12 months, passenger numbers on the Sydney to Melbourne route had recovered to 81 percent of 2019 figures, whilst Syndey to Canberra figures had only recovered 64 percent.
A new international airport is currently under construction in Western Sydney, which is due to be completed in 2026.
