Sydney Airport Managing Director and CEO Kerrie Mather has reported a 10.6% rise in international passenger traffic and a 5.2% increase in domestic passengers during the month of April.

 

She said that this ‘excellent passenger performance’ on the international side was largely thanks to strong increases from Chinese, US, Korean and Japanese arrivals. Australian nationals also contributed strongly, rising by 9.9% with good growth to destinations such as the US, Indonesia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and China.

 

Mather said added that all in all, the 12-month rolling international passenger growth also stood at an impressive 6.7%, which she said is well ahead of long-term trends.

 

VERY HEALTHY TRAFFIC

In a statement she said: “The domestic market continued to perform well, growing by 5.2%. Solid passenger growth on trunk routes and load factor improvements from both Qantas and Virgin were the primary drivers of the domestic result in April.

 

“Capacity is a key driver of passenger growth, so we were delighted this month to see Qatar Airways confirm and put on sale their A380 to Sydney from September. The larger aircraft has 517 seats compared to the 335 seat 777-300ER, which they currently operate on the Doha-Sydney route.

 

IN PRAISE OF QATAR AIRWAYS…

“Qatar Airways only commenced services to Australia in March and the upgauge is an illustration of the early success and strong loads which the airline has experienced to date.

 

“This new aircraft provides a further upgrade to the already premium experience for passengers and represents an additional 133,000 seats per annum, or a total (including those previously announced) of 378,000 seats annually.”