Sydney Airport Surpassed Important Milestone In March

There were 3,166,000 travellers who went through Sydney Airport in March 2023, an 86.7% increase from March 2019 before COVID. This is the best result after COVID so far.

International passenger travel exceeded the 80% recovery mark for the first time since the pandemic began. In March 2023, 1,086,000 people went through T1 International for the first time since the pandemic started. This is an 82.3% increase in tourist travel from March 2019 to April 2019.

Compared to March 2019, domestic passengers were up 89.2%, with 2,080,000 people going through the terminals. But data for the first half of April points to a return to the middle of the 80% mark.

The number of U.S. visitors coming through Sydney Airport was second on the list of the top 10 countries. However, the total number was still much lower than before COVID March 2019.

The number of travellers coming from the U.K. continues to go up. The recovery rate hit 87.4% in March, the best since the international border reopened in February last year.

There was a big jump in Chinese travellers coming to Australia. In March, the number was up 39.6% compared to March 2019 before COVID. In February, the recovery rate was only 24.7%.

Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said: “With new airlines and routes coming online, momentum is building, especially in our T1 International terminal.”

“For the first time since the Australian border reopened to tourists, international passenger numbers have cracked the 80 per cent recovery mark, with many airlines increasing capacity.

“With China now open for business and the European and North American summer almost here, we anticipate our international traffic will continue to pick up in the coming months”.