It’s been a long time coming, but after nearly four years, Australian passenger traffic at Sydney International Airport has finally reached pre-pandemic levels (or close enough to it). But there’s still room for improvement in other areas.
In November, almost as many Australians with passports travelled overseas from Sydney Airport as they did before the pandemic, with traffic numbers now just one per cent down on 2019.
In a traffic performance update for November 2023, Australia’s busiest airport reported that a total of 3.41 million passengers moved through the hub, up 15 per cent year-on-year and equal to 91.4 per cent of November 2019 levels.
Last month, the T1 international terminal welcomed 1.26 million passengers (93 per cent of November 2019), while the T2 and T3 domestic terminals saw 2.15 million passengers.
“Australians’ desire for overseas travel is clearly back, with the number of Australian passport holders coming through the T1 international terminal returning to pre-pandemic levels,” Sydney Airport CEO Scott Charlton said.
Not all good news for Sydney Airport
While Aussie international travel through the airport is fully back, traffic from Australia’s biggest visitor markets – New Zealand, China, the US and UK – is still below pre-pandemic levels.
However, passengers from South Korea, India and the Philippines are tracking well above 2019 levels.
“In terms of overseas visitors to Australia, passenger numbers are generally correlated to airline seat capacity,” Charlton said.
“We are seeing strong passenger volumes from markets with high seat capacity, and where capacity is restricted, the recovery in passenger volumes has been slower.
“The same dynamic is at play domestically, where tighter airline capacity is translating to passenger volumes that are around 10 per cent lower than during the same period pre-pandemic.”
Last month, Sydney Airport named the new flyover into its domestic terminals after Australia’s first female commercial airline pilot, women’s rights campaigner and aviation trailblazer, Deborah Lawrie AM.
Find out more at sydneyairport.com.au.
