Busiest June yet for Sydney Airport
SYDNEY Airport has recorded its best June on record for international and domestic passenger numbers after Singaporeans and Malaysians took advantage of cheap airfares.
International passenger numbers increased 10.4 per cent and domestic passenger numbers grew by 4.0 per cent in the year to June, Sydney Airport said. The number of Singaporeans arriving in Sydney increased by 62 per cent and the number of Australians travelling to Singapore increased 29 per cent in the month. The airport also recorded a 69 per cent increase in Malaysian June last year was affected by flight cancellations due to the ash cloud from Chile’s PuyehueCordon Caulle volcano.
‘‘The 2012 figure is the secondhighest for a June month, after 2005 when the British Lions’ rugby tour boosted visitor numbers,’’ Blackburn said.
The number of Australians arriving for business or pleasure rebounded by 15,900 on June last year after the ash disruptions cancelled the plans of thousands last year.
Chinese visitors were up by nearly half with 9700 arrivals.
For the June year, 2.6 million visitors arrived in New Zealand, up 5 per cent from a year earlier, but numbers from Japan, Britain and the United States continued to decline.
Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe this week reiterated passenger traffic to Sydney and a 31 per cent increase in Australians travelling to Malaysia.
Chief executive Kerrie Mather said the launch of low-cost services to Asia, such as Scoot’s daily service to Singapore, had proven popular.
The next most popular international growth markets were Japan, India, Indonesia, New Zealand, China, Canada, and the United States. France was the major market to record a decline.
Sydney airport said the June 2012 results were positively affected by weaker figures in June 2011. . calls for a review of the way that New Zealand attracted tourists and for closer industry cooperation. The massive growth in short- haul budget airlines, including in Asia, was encouraging people to holiday closer to home at the expense of long haul destinations like New Zealand, so there needed to be a shift from incentivising airlines to fly to New Zealand, to stimulating demand in high-value markets.
The strong New Zealand dollar relative to the weak United States dollar and Euro has made international holidays more affordable.
A total of 221,100 New Zealand residents left on a an overseas trip last month, up 15 per cent on June last year.
Disruption from the ash cloud and later-than-usual school holidays contributed to fewer departures, last year, Statistics said.