Hannah Hammoud
The growth of international arrivals has seen Melbourne Airport welcome more than 20 million passengers already this financial year.
The airport is making a strong return to pre-pandemic levels, with a total of 2,312,697 travellers passing through the terminals in February, representing 81 per cent of the 2,867,243 passengers processed in the same month in 2019.
In what is traditionally the quietest month of the year, Melbourne Airport processed 659,641 international travellers, including 382,116 arrivals compared to 277,527 arrivals in February 2019, the airport said.
Apart from returning Australians, passport holders from India, New Zealand, China, the United Kingdom and Malaysia represented the highest number of overseas arrivals.
Melbourne Airport chief executive Lorie Argus said the number of international arrivals highlighted the airport’s role as a key economic enabler for Victoria.
“This is good news for Victoria’s education sector and the broader economy, as full-fee paying overseas students return for their studies and add extra numbers to the state’s labour pool,” she said.
“Melbourne Airport has worked hard to secure extra flights to India and Malaysia as well as a return of capacity to Europe, New Zealand and China, and these figures suggest that is paying dividends.
“As part of our vision to become Australia’s favourite airport destination, we’ve started work to refresh our international check-in area and our international arrivals walk.
“We’ve also been able to start taking some of the hoarding down in the Qantas T1 domestic terminal, with fantastic new WH Smith and Icons Victoria outlets now open to travellers.
“More new retailers will open in T1 over the coming months, and when construction is finished later this year we are confident it will be the best domestic terminal in the country.”
