Canberra Airport says the federal government’s efficiency drive for savings in the public service is leading to falling passenger numbers.
“What we’ve seen is the airlines cutting services to Darwin, to Hobart and to Townsville,” Canberra Airport managing director Stephen Byron told The Canberra Times this week. “We’ve had 26 months of negative numbers as well as those route changes by the airlines.”
BITRE (Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics) figures show 3,304,010 revenue passengers passed through Canberra Airport in 2010, falling 2.9 per cent to 3,208,225 in 2011 and a further 4.4 per cent to 3,065,893 in 2012.
“It is the most unfortunate timing – when the [new] terminal is largely completed and looking shiny and new is the time when your debt exposure is at its highest and it’s at that time that we are seeing these poor passenger numbers, with an obvious impact on revenue,” Byron said.
