Melbourne Airport has forecast more than 1.6 million passengers during the upcoming June school holidays.
More than 1.1 million people are expected to pass through Melbourne’s domestic terminals over the 17 days from Friday, as well as more than 500,000 international travellers. The airport expects the next three Fridays to be the busiest days, with around 105,000 passengers on each day.
Melbourne Airport chief of aviation Jim Parashos has called the forecast an encouraging sign for the aviation industry and says the airport will be employing extra staff to make sure journeys go smoothly.
“Melbourne Airport is approaching 100 per cent of pre-COVID capacity and with that comes busy periods and holiday rushes, which is all part of life and it’s great to have it back,” he said.
“In the last few months we’ve welcomed new carriers, new routes and new staff to Melbourne Airport, and we are now shifting our focus as a business from recovering to growing.
“Numbers these holidays are up 12.8 per cent on the same time last year, which is being driven largely by demand for international travel.”
Melbourne’s top five domestic destinations are Sydney, Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Adelaide and Perth, while Bali, New Zealand, Singapore and Dubai rank highly among its international destinations.
The forecast comes off the back of the airport’s most successful month for passenger movements post-pandemic in May 2023. A total of 19,714 flights arrived or departed from the airport last month, with a monthly total of 2,608,088 passengers – 90.4 per cent of the 2,885,517 passengers seen in May 2019.
“The increase in both international and domestic capacity is important because it will help put downward pressure on airfares at a time when cost of living pressures are causing strain for many household budgets,” said Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus.
“Melbourne Airport continues to plan for infrastructure such as our third runway to ensure we have room to enable this growth and keep Victorians and Victorian produce moving.”
