Sydney, Australia: A total of 3,093,000 passengers passed through Sydney Airport in December 2022, down 21.7% compared to pre-COVID December 2019.
Domestic passenger traffic totaled 1,937,000 in December 2022, which is more than double the number of passengers in the same month last year but down 17.5% compared to December 2019.
There were 1,157,000 international passengers passing through the airport in December 2022, more than three times the number in December last year, however, down 27.9% compared to December 2019.
Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said: “This is the first time since February 2020 that we have seen more than 3 million passengers pass through Sydney Airport in a month.
“Our domestic terminals were bustling over the Christmas period as Australians traveled to see friends and family and explore this great country.
“The recovery is by no means over though, with 411,000 fewer domestic passengers in December 2022 than in December 2019.
“There is significantly more work to do to rebuild overseas travel, with international passenger traffic still well behind pre-pandemic levels and lower flight numbers.
“Australia needs to unlock more capacity, and quickly if we want to see a sustained recovery for our tourism, education, and export industries.
“There are some positive signs, with the number of flights to and from China rapidly increasing following that crucial border reopening and All Nippon Airways (ANA) announcing that it is doubling its Sydney to Tokyo flights to twice daily from late March.
“Finally, operations at the airport continue to improve with 95 percent of domestic passengers clearing security screening in less than 10 minutes throughout December.”
