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Melbourne Airport reports 1.9 per cent passenger growth for 2018/19

written by australianaviation.com.au | July 16, 2019

A supplied image of Melbourne Airport. (SITA)
A supplied image of Melbourne Airport. (SITA)

Melbourne Airport has reported a 1.9 per cent increase in total passengers for 2018/19, led by strong growth in a number of international markets.

The airport said it handled 37.3 million passengers in the 12 months to June 30 2019, up from 36.7 million in the prior corresponding period.

The number of international travellers rose 5.3 per cent to 11.4 million, while the number of domestic passengers inched 0.4 per cent higher to 26 million.

Melbourne Airport chief executive Lyell Strambi said 2018/19 was the busiest in the airport’s 49-year history.

“The growth in the international market is phenomenal, rising by more than five per cent on the 2017/18 financial year, which clearly demonstrates the popularity in overseas travel and strength in Melbourne as a tourism destination,” Strambi said in a statement on Monday.

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During 2018/19, Tullamarine welcomed a new nonstop flight to Manila from Cebu Pacific Air in August 2018, as well as the start of Qantas flights to San Francisco.

Then in June 2019 Air Vanuatu began nonstop flights to Port Vila and Sichuan Airlines started a Chengdu–Guiyang-Melbourne once weekly service.

Cebu Pacific's Airbus A330-300 RP-C3347 arrives at Melbourne Tullamarine. (Victor Pody)
Cebu Pacific’s Airbus A330-300 RP-C3347 arrives at Melbourne Tullamarine. (Victor Pody)

https://www.facebook.com/MelbourneInternationalAirport/videos/vb.213235072036795/1779229545557050/
VIDEO: Highlights from Air Vanuatu’s inaugural flight from Melbourne to Port Vila from the Melbourne Airport Facebook page.

Strambi noted the airport ended 2018/19 with 36 international airlines serving 45 international destinations nonstop.

“It has been a great year and I am very proud of the contribution the airport community has made to facilitating tourism, freight and trade through Melbourne Airport,” Strambi said.

“We are also seeing growth diversify into markets such as India, Canada and the Philippines, which is really exciting for our operation.”

Melbourne Airport recently announced it was reviewing the planned development of its new runway, potentially ditching the existing plan for a parallel east-west runway in favour of a north-south orientation.

The airport has also signed a partnership extension with aviation technology provider SITA to roll out next generation checkin and baggage drop facilities throughout all its terminals.

Melbourne Airport passenger numbers for 2018/19

Passengers Financial Year 2018/19 Percentage change from prior year
International 11.44 million +5.3 per cent
Domestic 25.95 million +0.4 per cent
Total 37.40 million +1.9 per cent

Source: Melbourne Airport

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Comments (2)

  • reeves35

    says:

    Growth is always good but the sad fact is the terminals are now all full to overflowing and are in desperate need of a revamp.

    Currently, the airport is in the process of adding more check-in counters in T2 (X zone where newsagent used to be) but that won’t alleviate the feel of clutter that landside in T2 has on both levels and don’t get me started on how bad T2 baggage claim is. I regularly visit SIN and am always amazed how calm the whole place feels whilst MEL is just the opposite.

    I know there were concept drawings of a complete rebuild of T2; the piecemeal mods we are currently seeing makes me think a proper rebuild is still years away.

    In addition to T2, both T1 and T3 are both sadly neglected and betray their 50 year old bones in many ways. You cannot walk through any of the terminals without feeling they are all well past their use-by dates.

  • Richard Felix

    says:

    I travel through melbourne airport regularly quite frankly the team that runs melbourne airport should hang their heads in shame for providing a third world terminal to victorians. We all know what international terminals look like today please Mr Strambi stop applying banded to this old terminal invest in a brand new state of the art terminal that we all victorians can be proud of.Stop building mega car parks please we need a new terminal now we don’t want to be embarrassed every time a relative or when we return home.

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