Chinese visitors continue to lead Sydney Airport’s spending league by nationality, while the airport points to a higher than average spend for passengers from secondary Chinese cities such as Xiamen and Chongqing, compared to cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

 

These are just a few of the interesting findings revealed at today’s Sydney Airport Investor Day Presentation. Airport management also highlighted total air traffic passenger statistics up +5.3% to 40.9m for the 12 months to June 2016, comprising 26.6m domestic (+4.1%) and 14.3m international (+7.5%) from a total of 342,300 aircraft movements.

 

While Australians continue to spend and represent an important part of the passenger mix to the retail business, China remains one of the airport’s largest and fastest growing markets.

 

DOMINANT ENTRY POINT FOR CHINESE

The airport claims Sydney currently has a 45% share of the 3.3m origin and destination passenger movements between Australia and Mainland China, with 13 mainland cities now served directly by seven airlines, compared with three which were served by four carriers just six years ago.

 

Other reasons for the growing popularity of Australia with visiting Chinese are its safety, comparative mild climate and educational opportunities, in addition to ranking first or second on five of the top six criteria Chinese say are most likely to motivate them to visit a country

 

Airport management also pointed out today that Sydney Airport is now the largest airport for long haul Chinese-based airlines globally because daily Asian flights can be served by a single aircraft – a significant competitive advantage for Sydney compared to routes between Asia and Europe – or North America.

 

 

SYDNEY’S ‘ACCESSIBILITY FACTOR’

Airport management made the point today that the eight to ten-hour sector is also ideal length for long haul, low-cost airlines with Jetstar basing its long haul services at Sydney and Scoot, Cebu Pacific and AirAsia X also exploiting the Sydney destination opportunity.

 

As such, the airport also continues to point out that airlines using Sydney can serve destinations comprising 70% of the world’s population within the range of a Boeing B787 and Airbus A350.

 

RETAIL TOP PERFORMER…

As for retail revenues, airport management pointed out today that Sydney ranks in the best performing shopping destinations in Australia, based on dollar spending per square metre.

 

It also represents 22% of total Sydney Airport revenue with a first half-year revenue contribution of A$142.3m ($108.1m) equal to +9.5% revenue growth over the period.

 

HEINEMANN IS SYDNEY’S MAJOR RETAIL PLAYER

Of this, duty free operated by Heinemann Asia Pacific represents 60% of the total, with Terminal 1 accountable for 85% of retail revenue.

 

Airport management adds that the new, seven ‘inline tenancies’ at the T2 casual dining precinct have also yielded a revenue uplift of 50% (1H15 vs. 1H16). In addition, it says ‘a smooth transition of the T3 terminal is delivering exciting leasing opportunities for future growth’.

 

Duty free alone operates on ‘a high minimum guarantee’ increasing by consumer price index and passenger growth and this business ‘remains the highest and best use of retail space by dollar per square metre.

 

 

In its presentation, the airport added: “Five of the duty free stores have now been completed with the Mega B store launched in May 2016.” The airport is also reviewing new opportunities to grow its turnover, while ‘enhancing the customer experience’ through the integration of technology to deliver a bespoke web shop.