Sydney airport, in Australia, released its October passenger traffic figures in the past hours. Data that shows how the largest airport of New South Wales is on track for recovery. However there is still significant ground to be made when comparing numbers to October 2019. Let’s take a closer look into what the Sydney Airport data tells us.
Sydney Airport’s Strongest Month of 2022
So far October has been the strongest month in terms of passenger numbers for Sydney Airport. The total number of passengers flying in and out of the airport was approximately 2,961,000. Of these:
- 2,044,000 Domestic passengers
- 916,000 International passengers
These numbers are on the rise from the previous 3 months when the airport broke the 2.8 million passenger mark in 2 occasions:
- September 2022 – 2,818,000 passengers
- August 2022 – 2,666,000 passengers
- July 2022 – 2,841,000 passengers
Comparing The Data to Previous Years
Comparing this data with that of the previous year makes no sense, as a year ago Australia still had its borders closed to most passenger traffic. Only Australian nationals with a valid reason for travel could enter the country.
Just to give you a clearer picture, in October 2021 Sydney Airport welcomed only 66,000 passengers:
- 46,000 Domestic
- 20,000 International
The increase in the thousand % points when comparing this year’s October data to last year’s. On the contrary what gives us a more insightful look into how the post covid recovery is proceeding is comparing the October 2022 performance with October 2019’s.
In this case the data indicates that Sydney airport has recovered a significant portion of its pre pandemic traffic. To be more precise it has recovered 75% of its total passenger traffic, with domestic passengers recovering at a faster rate:
- October 2022 domestic traffic is down 19.6% compared to October 2019 (80.4% of pre pandemic levels)
- October 2022 International traffic is down 36.1% compared to October 2019 (73.9% of pre pandemic levels)
Taking a more eagle’s eye view on the year so far, the year to date passenger numbers compared to the same period in 2019 show traffic down 37.3%. However a month after month Sydney airport has been continuously reducing its traffic deficit.
School Holidays And Christmas Might Boost Traffic
However one of the busiest, in terms of travel, parts of the year is still to come. In just a few weeks time schools will close for the summer-Christmas holidays.
This should boost both domestic and international passenger traffic figures and we’ll see if the trajectory towards full recovery will continue, slow down or even speed up with new routes opening for business.
