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 totalled 1,937,000 in December 2022, which is more than double the number of passengers in 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 travelled to see friends and family and explore this great country.”
Meanwhile the airport management believes with international passenger traffic still well behind pre-pandemic levels and lower flight numbers, significantly more work needs to be done to rebuild overseas travel.
Going ahead the airport management has urged the airline to unlock more capacity, quickly to see a sustained recovery.
The airport is also banking on the Chinese carriers increasing its Australia routes with All Nippon Airways doubling its Sydney to Tokyo flights to twice daily from late March.
“Finally, operations at the airport continue to improve with 95% of domestic passengers clearing security screening in less than 10 minutes throughout December," Culbert concluded.