Melbourne Airport passengers climb to over 28 million for 2010/11

Melbourne Airport Acting CEO, Mr Kirby Clark said, “Melbourne Airport and the state of Victoria have a lot to offer to passengers and our continued growth shows that people agree.”

“With curfew free operations, a single terminal precinct high service levels and low airline fees, we provide flexibility and convenience. Combine this with the fantastic cultural and sporting events that showcase our state to the world, we are indeed a premier travel destination.”

“During the last year, we welcomed additional international services from a number of existing airline customers as well as two new airlines to Melbourne Airport,” said Mr Clark. “I’d like to thank all of our airlines customers for their continued support of the Melbourne market and we look forward to continuing to work with them to expand their Melbourne operations.”

Additional international services in 2010/11 included:

• Jetstar launched daily Singapore and Auckland services as well as twice weekly services to Queenstown
• China Southern, China Eastern and Vietnam Airlines all increased to daily services
• Virgin Australia Group increased international services to Los Angeles, Christchurch, Bali and Fiji.
• Qantas introduced A380s and increased capacity on its London and Los Angeles services
• Emirates introduced B777s and increased capacity on its Dubai services
• Royal Brunei and Strategic Airlines commenced international services

International passengers for the 2010/11 financial year grew by 13.5 per cent or an additional 748,794 passengers compared to last financial year, taking total international passengers to 6,287,710.

The key driver of international growth was Asia with passport holders from China growing by 26.2 per cent, Singapore by 16.0 per cent, Malaysia by 15.8 per cent, Japan by 15.2 per cent, South Korea by 14.4, Indonesia by 10.7 per cent and India by 7.6 per cent.

Traditional markets also showed solid growth with New Zealand passport holders growing by 12.4 per cent, the United Kingdom by 7.2 per cent and the United States of America by 4.9 per cent. Australian passport holders also grew in 2010/2011 with a 14.7 per cent increase or an additional 400,016 Australian passport holders travelling compared to last financial year.

Mr Clark noted, “Our strong growth has benefitted Melbourne as well as Victoria, but at peak times, it’s also created some congestion in our terminal and on the road network. We have a number of construction projects underway or planned that will improve the overall passenger experience at Melbourne Airport and also manage expected future growth.”

Despite some extreme weather events domestic passenger growth for the 2010/2011 financial year was solid with an additional 1,272,777 passengers or an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to last financial year, taking total domestic passengers to 21,902,747.

“Mother nature has shown her strength over the last six months in particular with a number of events such as earthquakes, floods, cyclones as well as the lingering impacts of a volcanic eruption, all of which impacted on domestic Australian travel,” said Mr Clark.

Domestic passengers for the month of June were affected by the two separate occurrences of volcanic ash plume resulting in a decline of 4.6 per cent or a decrease of 76,966 passengers when compared to the same period last month.

International passengers for June however increased by 36,381 passengers or by 7.9 per cent compared to the same period last year taking total international passengers to 505,861 for June. Australian passport holders also continued to take advantage of the strong Australian dollar and economy with an increase of 7.9 per cent for June.