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NEW ZEALAND. Auckland Airport today announced a record 14.4 million passengers (excluding transits) in calendar 2013 – 7.5 million of them international and 6.9 million domestic.
International passenger numbers rose +4.2% compared to calendar 2012, while domestic numbers increased +7.1%.
Simon Robertson, Auckland Airport’s Chief Financial Officer, commented: “2013 was a record year for the number of passengers using our airport and shows that our business strategy to grow travel markets and drive growth in travel, trade and tourism is working.
“Not only was 2013 a record year for passengers, but in December 2013 Auckland Airport experienced the highest-ever number of international passengers in one month, with 745,345 international passengers (excluding transits) using Auckland Airport.
“To really top the year off, we also had our busiest ever week for international passenger movements. For the week ended 22 December 2013, there were 181,207 international passenger movements at Auckland Airport.”
The performance was underpinned by capacity increases from airlines including Air New Zealand, China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Emirates, Hawaiian Airlines, Jetstar, Malaysia Airlines and Qantas.
Robertson lauded the performance of subsidiary Queenstown Airport, which also had its busiest-ever calendar year in 2013. Its 1.2 million passenger movements marked +5.1% increase on the previous year – largely due to a +30.9% increase in international visitor arrivals.
“2014 is already delivering strong passenger numbers for Auckland Airport, with promising results for January,” he added.
“When combined with the strength of our emerging growth markets, such as Indonesia and India, this is fantastic news for our customers, our city and our country.”
