Melbourne Airport has reported a mixed result for passenger growth in July, with international arrivals growing strongly but domestic numbers declining with the grounding of Tiger Airways.
A total of 581,564 international passengers were recorded for the month, a 12 per cent increase or 62,491 more passengers when compared to July 2010. However, domestic traffic was down by three per cent compared to July 2010, with 57,844 fewer arrivals taking the number to 1,816,704 passengers.
“Last week, we welcomed back Tiger Airways services at Melbourne Airport. As the Australian home of Tiger Airways, we look forward to continue working with Tiger as they reintroduce and strengthen their Australian services,” Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said. “However, there is no doubt that Tiger’s suspension impacted our domestic passenger figures during July.”
Asia remained a key market for the airport, as passengers from the Philippines (up 30.8 per cent), Japan (27.1 per cent growth) and China (19.2 per cent growth) drove the strong international results for July. “The importance of Asia as a key market for Melbourne was also reaffirmed with recent announcements from Jetstar and China Southern regarding additional services between Melbourne and China,” Woodruff said.
