Sydney Airport data reveals traffic still not back to pre COVID levels

Sydney, Australia.
By Zach Havard


Sydney Airport has released its passenger data for the first month of 2023, reinforcing the industry trend that highlights travel numbers are not quite back to what they were in 2019.

A total of 3,120,000 passengers passed through Sydney Airport in January 2023, representing a 78.8% recovery compared to pre-COVID January 2019.

Domestic passenger traffic totalled 1,887,000 in January 2023; an 82.4% recovery compared to January 2019.

1,233,000 international passengers passed through the airport in January 2023, representing a 73.9% recovery on January 2019 passenger traffic.

On the first anniversary of Australia reopening its international border, Sydney Airport is reintroducing data showing the top 10 nationalities of passengers travelling through the airport each month.

In January, Australians travelling abroad took out the top spot, followed by New Zealanders, and U.S. passengers ranked third overall.

Sydney airport (iStock/Boeing746)

“It has been a challenging year for Sydney Airport since Australia reopened its border, but we are now seeing a steady stream of international travellers eager to explore the world again,” CEO, Sydney Airport, Geoff Culbert, said.

“While passenger numbers have increased since our border reopened, frustratingly the recovery is being impacted by the lack of capacity on key overseas routes.

“In January, the number of U.S and U.K. travellers was still only three quarters of what we saw pre-COVID, while the number of passengers from previously popular European countries like Germany and France was even lower.

“With the border to China reopening earlier this year, we anticipate the number of Chinese travellers to increase significantly throughout 2023, especially with more capacity returning to key routes.

“Australia also needs a sustained recovery in aviation capacity to support the recovery of key export markets including high-value agriculture, business travel, and international students.”

Although numbers are yet to bounce back to what they were (for a number of reasons), it is widely accepted that the urge travel is largely back on the peoples radar, and it high on Aussie priority lists. 

 

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