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More passengers travelled through Melbourne Airport on the average day in August this year than in the entire same month in 2021.
More than 2.3 million people visited its four terminals in total, up 3,000 per cent from last year’s combined figure of just 73,805. Incredibly, international traveller numbers rose by more than 4,000 per cent.
The news comes as domestic aviation nationally returns to almost pre-pandemic numbers, while international travel lags at around 50 per cent.
Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus said the airport is now gearing up for the school holidays and next week’s AFL Grand Final.
“Between now and the start of October, we’re expecting around 1.5 million passengers to pass through our terminals as people head off for a break or come to Melbourne to watch the footy finals,” she said.
“The recent work the airlines have been doing to improve their operational performance is starting to show in their on-time data, and our team is doing what we can to support them.
“The airport will be busy, so we’d encourage passengers to allow plenty of time to help take pressure off themselves and the system.”
Last week Australian Aviation reported a new ACCC report that showed how domestic airlines were significantly reducing capacity to mitigate the delays and cancellations caused by staff shortages and sickness.
The competition watchdog revealed the cut in seats for sale during the last few months came despite the local industry hitting 97 per cent of pre-pandemic passenger numbers in June.
“The domestic airline industry carried 4.7 million passengers in July 2022, marking a new high since the pandemic first impacted the industry in early 2020,” said the competition watchdog in its latest quarterly report on the industry as it recovers from the pandemic.
“July 2022 was the fourth consecutive month with more than 4 million passengers flying, representing notable stability for an industry that has endured regular interruptions in recent years.
“Despite the high number of passengers, the July 2022 figure only represented 89 per cent of the number of passengers who flew at that time of year in 2019, prior to the pandemic.
“This was the same as the recovery levels reached in April 2022, but below the recent high in June 2022, which saw passenger numbers reach 97 per cent of pre-COVID-19 levels.
Separate Cirium figures recently released also showed how Virgin, Qantas, and Air New Zealand were named among the global airlines with the current highest cancellation rates.
Domestic aviation also repeatedly broke all-time records for delays in April, June, and July 2022.
