Tuesday 29 October 2024

• Sydney Airport delivers strong performance in Q3 with a total of 10.3 million passengers
• Improvements to international border experience set to streamline process
• New Group Executive to join Sydney Airport to help deliver ~$4.4bn capital program over the next five years.

Sydney Airport delivered strong performance in Q3 (July, August, and September 2024) with a total of 10.3 million passengers passing through the terminals. This represents a 3.3 per cent increase on passenger traffic during the same period last year and a 92.5 per cent recovery compared to Q3 2019.

Sydney Airport’s T1 international terminal saw 4 million passengers pass through in Q3, a 5.8 per cent increase on the same period last year and a 95.7 per cent recovery rate on Q3 2019.

Domestic and regional passenger traffic was up 1.8 per cent on the same period last year, with 6.3 million passengers coming through the T2 and T3 domestic terminals and a 90.5 per cent recovery rate on Q3 2019.

From an operational perspective, Sydney Airport performed strongly in Q3 2024, posting improvements across all operational metrics compared to Q3 2023. Highlights included 100 per cent of passengers passing through security in under 10 minutes and no instances where kerbside drop-off times at the domestic terminal exceeded 10 minutes.

Sydney Airport is also working closely with Australian Border Force to improve inbound border processing. As a result of this collaboration, Sydney Airport will purchase additional E-Gate kiosks which the ABF will then operate – an example of industry and government working together to help streamline the passenger experience.

Scott Charlton, Sydney Airport CEO, said: “Despite the headwinds we’re seeing in terms of supply chains affecting airline capacity, we’re pleased with how we are tracking on international passenger traffic.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in airline seat capacity that’s translating into passenger numbers from countries like India, the Philippines and South Korea increasing relative to 2019 levels. In the case of South Korea, this nationality has increased by 54 per cent compared to 2019 and in Q3 moved above the United Kingdom to become our 5th largest passenger group.

“We remain optimistic on the outlook for Chinese passengers as tour groups return, and with new mainland China carriers like Juneyao Air joining before the end of the year, and existing carriers boosting capacity, we expect to finish the year very close to pre-COVID levels of Chinese passengers.

“Domestically, performance remains impacted by a shift in discretionary business travel.

“Operationally, we’re consistently beating our 10-minute metric for kerbside drop-off times and security processing, which is pleasing because it reflects our focus on creating a faster and more efficient experience for passengers. We are also continuing with our transparency agenda and will shortly be launching kerbside wait times on our website, which follows the deployment of live security wait times back in May.

“Providing visibility into how the airport is performing in real time is important in terms passengers planning their trip to the airport, and getting an insight into what their experience will be like when they get here.”

New Group Executive to join Sydney Airport

Paul Willis will be joining Sydney Airport in November as Group Executive – Planning and Delivery.

Paul joins from Manchester Airport Group (MAG), where he has spent the last nine years as Chief Development Officer, Group Strategy and Aviation Director and Engineering Services Director.

Before MAG, Paul spent over 20 years working on the development of airport infrastructure across leading international airports, and he started his career with National Air Traffic Services in the UK. He brings extensive aviation and airport experience ranging across planning, design, construction, commercial development, and operations.

Mr Charlton said: “Given the size and complexity of our capital program over the next five years, it’s important that we have someone with deep experience in the airport infrastructure space.

“Paul brings significant experience in designing and delivering complex aviation capital programs and we are looking forward to welcoming him in November.”

Passenger and operational performance data

Click here for the Q3 passenger and performance data.