Melbourne Airport says that it achieved a new record for international passenger traffic over the past financial year as overall traffic grew by a healthy six per cent.
For the year ending June 30 2010, the airport handled 5.538 million international passengers, representing a new record and an increase of 13 per cent over the previous year. The airport noted that major increases in traffic from key markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, China and India helped to push traffic up, as well as the $330 million upgrade to the international terminal, which provides additional space for new services.
“There is no denying that the industry has faced a challenging two years,” said airport CEO Chris Woodruff. “Melbourne Airport has worked even more closely with our airline customers to keep costs significantly lower than other Australian airports, while maintaining high service levels.”
Domestic passenger numbers also increased healthily, up four per cent over the previous year to 20.63 million, attributed to the growth in services from Jetstar and Tiger Airways over the year.
The airport is expecting to see a further increase in traffic over the next year, with Air India, AirAsia X, Emirates and Jetstar among the airlines which are planning new services or increased capacity to Melbourne over the coming year.
