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Sydney Airport is seeing increasing demand for take-off and landing slots as international travel continues to grow.
Slot demand for next year’s northern summer season, or the six months from 29 March 2026, has increased by 8 per cent over historical slots for the same period, according to slot manager Airport Coordination Limited.
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Approved international slot requests jumped by 10 per cent, with domestic up seven per cent and freight up 17 per cent.
Qantas saw the largest increase in slots of any carrier, up 10 per cent or 6,480 slots, with Jetstar in second, adding 2,750 slots for a 10 per cent increase, and Virgin Australia increasing slots by 1,397, or 4 per cent; Rex, meanwhile, saw a 1 per cent growth in slot allocations.
“Of the overseas-based carriers, Air New Zealand, Asiana, AirAsia X, Malaysia Airlines, Etihad, China Southern, Scoot, SriLankan Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Qatar Airways had the biggest slot growth,” ACL said.
“Total seat numbers rose nine per cent to 33.8 million; 42 per cent will be flown by international carriers, which also had the most significant increase in seats at 11 per cent compared with eight per cent growth in domestic seat numbers.
“This is because of the larger aircraft used by carriers for medium and long-haul international flights.”
According to ACL CEO Neil Garwood, the slot manager was able to allocate 91 per cent of slots at the time requested by the airlines, with the remainder allocated as close as possible. This is the first slot allocation since the new demand management framework came into effect in October.
“What we’re seeing at Sydney plays out consistently with hub airports around the world where demand for next year is up versus this year and average aircraft sizes are increasing,” Garwood said.
“We anticipate demand profiles will change slightly as the season approaches and airlines firm up their schedules.
“At Sydney, about 70 per cent of the available slots have been taken for the Northern Summer season next year, so we still have ample capacity available.”
The news comes as Australia is expected to enjoy record international demand next month. According to aviation analytics firm Cirium, Australia will see 12.2 million scheduled seats in December 2025, with 45 per cent of this coming from international capacity.
“That’s a notable shift from 2020, when international flights made up just 42 percent. New Zealand and Singapore remain Australia’s largest international markets by seat capacity,” Cirium said.
Indonesia, China and the UAE were the next three largest markets, with the US, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Japan, and Qatar rounding out the top 10.
