AUSTRALIA. Melbourne Airport handled over 7 million international passengers in 2013, a +7% increase compared to 2012, buoyed by strong international passenger growth in December.
Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff said 2013 was a milestone year for the airport. “The approval of our Master Plan was a significant achievement for 2013 and sets the direction of our developments for the next 20 years. We also laid the foundations for the largest transformation of Melbourne Airport since it opened more than 40 years ago as we ensure that our facilities are able to manage the 60 million passengers forecast for 2033,” he said.
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2013 was “a milestone year” for Melbourne Airport, says CEO Chris Woodruff |
Woodruff continued: “We reached the milestone mark of 30 million passengers in 2013 and as Victoria’s international aviation gateway, we will continue to provide access to global destinations as well as help to strengthen ties with key business, education, tourism and export markets to support the growth of our great state.
“Our airline customers also supported Victoria in 2013 with many introducing new services, new destinations or increased capacity on key routes with a focus on the growing Asian market,” he added.
Countries with strong growth in 2013 were Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Malaysia and Vietnam, all growing by more than +10% compared to 2012. Australian passport holders increased by +6.5% for 2013.
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Domestic passengers increased by +3% in 2013 compared to 2012, reaching 23,051,421 passengers.
For the month of December 2013, international passengers increased by +10% and domestic passengers increased by +3% compared to the same month last year. Australian passport holders increased by +7%.
“December was a record month for us – it was our busiest month on record; 21 December was also our busiest day on record for international passengers and, for the first time, there were more than 700,000 international passengers in a month,” said Woodruff.
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“Melbourne is known as Australia’s event capital with events such as The Ashes and the World Diabetes Conference, both held in December, showcasing Melbourne for the global destination it is.”
A review of 2013
The calendar year to 31 December 2013 saw total passenger growth of +4% at Melbourne Airport, with 30,475,166 passengers passing through the airport.
An additional 482,189 international passengers, or +7% increase compared to 2012, flew in and out of Melbourne during 2013 with international passengers reaching a total of 7,423,745 passengers.
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New and increased international airline services in 2013 included:
• Sichuan Airlines commenced its first Australian service with the launch of direct Chengdu-Melbourne service three times per week.
• Qantas launched a daily Melbourne-Singapore service.
• Garuda added two Bali-Melbourne services to become a daily service and also added another weekly Jakarta-Melbourne service to reach five daily services.
• Virgin Australia increased its Melbourne-Fiji services to a daily service.
• Singapore Airlines introduced a fourth daily service to Singapore.
• Air India commenced services in Australia with the launch of its Delhi-Sydney-Melbourne service with the first 787 Dreamliner.
• AirAsia X increased services to Malaysia to 14 per week.
• Malaysian Airlines introduced a third daily service to Malaysia.
• Jetstar introduced a fourth weekly service to Honolulu during the peak summer period. Jetstar also launched a direct service to Phuket and upgraded to a B787 on its Bali services. A direct service to Tokyo was also announced and is due to commence in April 2014.
• Etihad introduced the larger Boeing 777 aircraft for its services.
• China Eastern introduced Shanghai-Melbourne three times per week seasonal services from December 2013 to February 2014. This is in addition to the daily scheduled seven per week services.
• China Southern increased capacity on its Guangzhou service to 14 per week during the peak summer season.
• Air New Zealand increased capacity on its services to Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
• Philippines Airlines introduced direct services to Manila three times a week replacing services that triangulated via Sydney.
• Korean Air ceased its thrice weekly Melbourne-Seoul services.
International seat capacity increased by 705,890 seats, an increase of +7.4%.
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