Key points

• International passenger volumes up by 2.5 per cent.
• International year-to-date passenger figures up by 6.9 per cent compared to last year.
• Domestic figures up by 1.3 per cent.

 Melbourne Airport welcomed close to three million passengers last month, with many travellers taking advantage of Melbourne’s extensive domestic offering. 

The highest growing sector was the international market with almost 900,000 people flying overseas, a growth of 2.5 per cent on passenger volumes recorded in February 2018.

International traveller numbers for the financial year-to-date also increased significantly, as close to eight million people travelled from July 2018 to February 2019, an increase of 6.9 per cent compared to the same time last year. 

The domestic traveller market also grew by 1.3 per cent compared to figures in February 2018.

Melbourne Airport CEO Lyell Strambi said he was delighted with last month’s passenger figures.

“I’m pleased to see such growth in overall passenger volumes, there’s clearly strong demand on our domestic network, especially over summer, and huge demand in international travel,” said Mr Strambi.

“Last month Melbourne Airport welcomed almost three million people through its doors, that’s a growth of 1.7 per cent on overall figures recorded in February 2018, which is really positive for Melbourne.

“We also celebrated Chinese New Year, bringing elements of our city’s Chinese culture into the airport and we added capacity to China thanks to an aircraft upgauge from both China Eastern and Sichuan Airlines.”

Mr Strambi said to keep up with demands on air travel Melbourne Airport will continue to invest heavily into improving the airport asset from road upgrades to terminal and runway expansion.

Passenger figures for February 2019:

*Monthly percentage growth compared to February 2018

Passenger figures for FY to February 2019:

*Note figures are rounded