Melbourne Airport is pleased to announce that the new financial year has started with an all time record month, with total passenger numbers up 13.4 per cent when compared with July last year.
This substantial growth has come from both international, up by 16.4 per cent, and, domestic, up by 12.7 per cent for the month when compared to July last year.
The outstanding international passenger performance was driven primarily by significant growth to and from Asia out of Melbourne. Of note, Chinese passport holders were up 45 per cent, Japan up 77 per cent, Indonesia up 20 per cent, Malaysia up 29 per cent and Singapore up 39 per cent.
Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff cited Victoria's strengths as a tourism destination and the airport's key operational advantages as key factors supporting this growth.
"More and more Asian visitors to Australia are using Melbourne as their main entry point and are, as a result, spending more time here. We have a city, and wider state, that is such a fantastic destination, a brilliant calendar of events, a strong standing as a Global University City, strong business links and some wonderful tourism destinations within a few hours of the city.
"Additionally, more airlines are choosing to fly to Melbourne Airport due to our 24 hour curfew free operation, very competitive prices, single terminal campus and close proximity to the CBD" Mr Woodruff said.
July saw AirAsia X double their existing daily services to Kuala Lumpur and Emirates significantly boosted capacity through aircraft upgrades on the popular Melbourne - Dubai and Melbourne - Auckland routes.
Looking forward, Air India will launch in November with daily services to and from Delhi. Qantas will be progressively increasing A380 services from Melbourne to London culminating in daily services and to Los Angeles to six services a week by March next year. Jetstar will be introducing daily services to Singapore, and is commencing services to Auckland and Queenstown from December. Both China Southern and Air China will be increasing to daily services from November and V Australia will be increasing services to Johannesburg this December.
On the domestic front, Jetstar commenced services to Brisbane in July, and will be increasing existing return services between Launceston and Melbourne from three-times daily to four-times daily in December. Tiger also announced they will be commencing daily flights to Cairns from September and adding additional services to Darwin.
According to Australia's Tourism Forecasting Committee, the Asian region is forecast to be a key driver of growth in 2010/11.In particular Malaysia is predicted to grow by up to 14 per cent, India 11 per cent, China 5 per cent, Taiwan 10 per cent and Indonesia 9 per cent this financial year.
"Victoria is in great shape to support this and attract more of this growth. These July results are a fantastic start and bode very well for the rest of the year" he said.
Asian passport holder growth for the month of July 2010:
|
Country of origin
|
% growth
|
|
Chinese
|
45
|
|
Hong Kong
|
11
|
|
Indonesia
|
20
|
|
Japan
|
77
|
|
Malaysia
|
29
|
|
Philippines
|
10
|
|
Singapore
|
39
|
|
South Korea
|
28
|
|
Sri Lanka
|
14
|
|
Taiwan
|
20
|
|
Vietnam
|
6
|
-ends-
For further information, please contact: Melbourne Airport Media - (03) 9335 3666