Traffic recovery gathering pace at Sydney Airport

A total of 3.41 million passengers passed through Sydney Airport in November 2023, a rise of 15% on the corresponding month a year ago, and just 8.6% below pre-pandemic levels.

Sydney Airport’s T1 international terminal saw 1.26 million passengers pass through in November, a 29.8% increase on the same month last year and a 93% recovery rate on November 2019.

Domestic passenger traffic was up 7.8% on the same month last year, with 2.15 million passengers coming through the T2 and T3 domestic terminals in November.

Australians heading abroad

The number of Australian passport holders travelling abroad from Sydney Airport was only 1% off pre-pandemic levels in November.

While the number of passport holders from New Zealand, China, the US and UK were still below 2019 levels, the number of passengers from South Korea, India and the Philippines were all well above.

Sydney Airport CEO, Scott Charlton, said: “Australians’ desire for overseas travel is clearly back, with the number of Australian passport holders coming through the T1 international terminal returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“In terms of overseas visitors to Australia, passenger numbers are generally correlated to airline seat capacity. We are seeing strong passenger volumes from markets with high seat capacity, and where capacity is restricted, the recovery in passenger volumes has been slower.

“The same dynamic is at play domestically, where tighter airline capacity is translating to passenger volumes that are around 10% lower than during the same period pre-pandemic.”