Aussies to the rescue for Auckland Airport

Tuesday 28th July 2009

Red-hot competition on trans-Tasman routes is reflected in another big jump in arrivals through Auckland International Airport from Australia, and a 4% increase in international aircraft movements in June, compared to a year earlier.

That's despite a 5.2% fall in international passengers arriving through the NZX-listed national gateway airport to 215,879.

Arrivals from Australia at 42,254 were up 14.3% for the month against June 2008 and showed a 7.1% increase year to date from the West Island. Reflecting this, total international aircraft movements came in at 3327 for June, compared with 3198 in June last year.

In all other categories, Auckland International Airport reported reduced activity, with domestic aircraft movements dropping 9.4% to 8582 compared to the same month a year ago, a 3% drop in domestic passengers to 461,687, and a continuation in the precipitous fall in arrivals from Asian destinations.

Arrivals from South Korea were down 42.7% at 2665, Chinese arrivals were down 49.7% at 2556, and at 2306 arrivals for the month of June, Japanese visitors were down 82.1%.

For reasons that are not immediately apparent, there was a surge in arrivals from Canada, a small source of arrivals at 1644, but 16.4% higher than June 2008.

Business,conference and holiday travellers were all still in the doldrums, recording 15.2% and 14.4% falls respectively to a total of 66,008, while people arriving to visit friends and relatives - to some extent a proxy for a low-cost holiday - rose 9.9% to 33,498.

Businesswire.co.nz

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