Increases in Asian passenger numbers have been outperforming other nationalities at Sydney Airport (SYD) – with Chinese and South Koreans leading the growth.

Korean traffic rose by +21% in the first half of the year, while Chinese pax – the second biggest nationality at the gateway after Australians – grew by just under +20% in the same period (see table below).

Other Asian nationalities such as Indians and the Japanese also managed to make it into double-digits, well ahead of key European markets such as the UK and Germany.

Sydney Airport Managing Director and CEO, Kerrie Mather, says: “We welcomed a record 20.3 million passengers through Sydney Airport in the first half of 2016, representing total and international growth of +6.7% and +9.3% respectively, an exceptional result.”

EXPANDED SERVICES TO CHINA

SYD will add further services to China from September when Hainan Airlines starts a new route from Changsha in the south-central Chinese province of Hunan and reintroduces the Xi’an service, both on a year-round, twice-weekly basis. SYD says these routes will add an incremental 104,000 seats annually.

Mather says: “This is fantastic news for tourism, as services from Changsha and Xi’an are expected to bring 33,000 Chinese visitors, who will contribute an anticipated A$124m/$94.5m in visitor expenditure per year.”

Xiamen Airlines is also increasing frequency on the Xiamen-Sydney route, from two to four per week from 31 October, adding 20,500 seats to the route over the season.