Passenger numbers rose on the quarter and year at Australia's Sydney Airport in October-December, but remain behind pre-Covid-19 levels, meaning jet fuel demand is likely to be higher in 2025.
Total transits at the nation's busiest airport were up by more than 500,000 on a year earlier in the quarter, aided by a 7pc rise in international passengers, while domestic numbers were up by 4pc.
Numbers were also up in 2024 compared with 2023's annual figure, again aided by a 12pc rise in international terminal passengers, while domestic numbers rose by just 4pc.
Total transits of 41.39mn were 7pc higher than a year earlier but are still 7pc below 2019 levels, the last full year before pandemic-era travel restrictions resulted in Sydney's figures dropping by 75pc in 2020.
Passenger traffic at Australia's Melbourne Airport — the nation's second busiest — rose by 7pc on the year in 2024 to 35.75mn, 5pc below 2019's 37.45mn.
Jet fuel sales rose by 11pc in the first 11 months of 2024 to 160,000 b/d, with November the latest month for which data from Australian Petroleum Statistics are available. The figure was 161,000 b/d in January-November 2019, suggesting further growth in jet fuel demand is possible this year.
Sydney Airport passenger traffic | mn | ||||||||
Oct-Dec '24 | Jul-Sep '24 | Oct-Dec '23 | 2024 | 2023 | 2019 | q-o-q % ± | y-o-y % ± | 2024 vs 2023 % ± | |
Total | 11 | 10.3 | 10.5 | 41.4 | 38.7 | 44.4 | 6 | 5 | 7 |
International | 4.4 | 4 | 4.1 | 16.3 | 14.5 | 16.9 | 8 | 7 | 12 |
Domestic | 6.7 | 6.3 | 6.4 | 25.1 | 24.1 | 27.5 | 5 | 4 | 4 |
— Sydney Airport |