Tullamarine hits a new passenger milestone
Melbourne Airport has hit a new passenger milestone with its August 2017 passenger data confirming 10 million passengers had been clocked through the international terminal over the previous 12 months.
For the first time in the airport’s 47-year history, 10 million international passengers passed through the doors in a rolling 12-month period. That’s a five-fold increase since privatisation in 1997.
The airport’s latest passenger data revealed more than 850,000 international travellers took international trips in August 2017, a 9.7 per cent increase compared to the same time last year.
Melbourne Airport Media release
On a month-to-month comparison, in August 2017, 853,253 passengers travelled on international services and there were 2,097,857 domestic passengers. This represents 9.7% growth compared to August 2016 for international and 3.6% growth in domestic numbers.
Over the short to medium term it's not hard to see how this growth will continue.
Australia Pacific Airports - the owner of the leasehold and operator of Tullamarine airport - says the numbers will be boosted further by new services to China with Jetstar beginning services to Zhengzhou and Xiamen Airlines kicking off flights to Hangzhou.
As Urban.com.au previously reported, we're finally set to get a second non-stop mainland North American destination - Vancouver - with Air Canada kicking off a 4 times weekly seasonal service from December this year through to February next year. Air Canada has subsequently decided to restart and make the services permanent from June 2018 flying three-times weekly.
The first non-stop flight to a South American destination - Santiago de Chile - will begin next month and at the beginning of September Japan Airlines kicked off its Tokyo-Narita - Melbourne service.
The roll-call of Chinese cities to have a non-stop service to Melbourne is pushing upwards of 10 cities. Air China, China Eastern and China Southern have the lion's share with multiple daily flights to the big three - Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - however the aviation network from Melbourne is well and truly established amongst the mid-tier cities.
At any rate, the morning departures from Melbourne Airport are set to be very busy with multiple mid-tier Chinese cities in the mix.
Lead image credit: Melbourne Airport.
