Sydney International Airport remained Australia’s top air gateway in 2012, both on the domestic and international front. The airport welcomed last year 36.92 million passengers (+3.6%), far ahead of Melbourne, Australia’s second largest airport with 29.42 million passengers.
SYDNEY/MELBOURNE- Sydney Airport served a total of 36.9 million passengers during 2012, a record for the airport. This represents a total passenger growth of 3.6% over the year. December was the airport’s busiest month on record, with passenger numbers growing by 5.2%.
Commenting on the results, Sydney Airport CEO Kerrie Mather declared: “I am pleased to announce a very positive finish to 2012, with more passengers through the airport in the month of December than ever before. A record 36.9 million passengers through the airport in 2012 is an exceptional result, driven by growth in both international and domestic travel. It was exciting to see such a significant increase in both international and domestic low cost carrier capacity, in particular Scoot, Jetstar and AirAsia X internationally and the expansion of domestic services by Jetstar and Tiger.
“International traffic continued to perform strongly, growing by 5.8% during December and 5.3% over the year driven by the rebound in international tourism/inbound growth (+4.8% for the full year). In particular Malaysian and Singaporean passengers grew 59% and 34% for the month respectively. Australian outbound travel grew by 6.5% for the month, and 5.9% for the full year.
The outbound increase was driven by travel to South East Asian destinations such as Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, as well as travel further afield to locations such as the UAE, USA, UK and Japan. China Eastern commenced direct A330-300 flights between Sydney and Nanjing three times a week on 21 December 2012. China Eastern now operates a total of 12 weekly services from Sydney, maintaining Sydney Airport’s position as the number one gateway airport for Chinese visitors.
“Domestic passengers grew by 2.7% over the year. Airline seat capacity was the key driver of the domestic result, with Tiger and Jetstar once again providing the largest contributions to seat and passenger growth over the month. Tiger and Jetstar have increased seat capacity materially over 2012 with both airlines introducing new routes and increasing frequencies on existing routes,” added Sydney Airport CEO.
For international traffic, the major nationality markets that grew included Australia (+6%), Malaysia (+59%), Singapore (+34%), India (+15%), China (+8%), Germany (+6%), Canada (+5%), Japan (+5%), the USA (+3%), New Zealand (+2%) and the UK (+1%). France (-11%) and Indonesia (-3%) were the major nationality markets that declined.
Although international passengers traffic represents only a third of all passengers flying from or into Sydney, the airport is the busiest international gateway to the country. Its total international passengers output of 12.2 million is larger than combined international passengers’ figures of Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns.
International passengers represented last year less than a quarter of all passengers at Melbourne International and just 21.5% of total traffic of Brisbane Airport.
Calculated in market share, Perth is the second busiest international airport in Australia with 27% of its passengers’ traffic flying overseas.
In Melbourne, international passengers traffic grew last year by 6% thanks to the addition of new frequencies. The key international growth markets were from Asia: China up by 16.6 per cent, Taiwan up by 15.7%, Hong Kong up 15 per cent, Sri Lanka up by 12.6 per cent, India up by 12 per cent and the Philippines increased by 11.1 per cent compared to 2011. New Zealand also performed well with passengers up by 7.8%.
Table: Australian airports performance in Calendar Year 2012
|
(‘000) |
Total International passengers |
Total passengers |
Growth 2012/2011 |
|
Sydney |
12,251 |
36,920 |
+3.6% |
|
Melbourne |
6,942 |
29,423 |
+5.0% |
|
Brisbane |
4,390 |
20,423 |
+4.5% |
|
Perth |
3,641 |
13,357 |
+11.8% |
|
Gold Coast |
0,854 |
5,677 |
+6.8% |
|
Cairns |
0,743 |
4,377 |
n.a. |
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
