More than three million pass through Brisbane Airport over Xmas holiday period

The festive period delivered more than $3bn to Queensland tourism operators and visitor economy, with tourist numbers now nearing pre-pandemic levels, the Brisbane Airport Corporation boss reveals.

An extraordinary number of travellers passed through Brisbane Airport over the Christmas holiday period, with the airport reporting more than double the amount of flyers compared to last summer.

More than three million people shuffled through the terminals between December and January, with tourist numbers now nearing pre-pandemic levels.

The holiday figures smashed last season’s record by 1,936,000 passengers.

Brisbane Airport Corporation’s Stephen Beckett said the high numbers reflected a busy tourism season for Queensland.

A busy Brisbane Airport just before Christmas Day 2022. Picture: David Clark

“This festive period delivered more than $3bn to Queensland tourism operators and the state’s visitor economy,” Mr Beckett said.

“When Brisbane Airport is busy, Queensland is busy.”

Tourists were soon replaced by business workers, with Brisbane Airport seeing 47,000 jetsetters through the domestic terminals on Monday, including more than 3000 who rushed to hop on a flight during the morning peak hour between 6am and 7am.

Brisbane Airport had 47,000 jetsetters through its domestic terminals on Monday. Picture: David Clark

Mr Beckett said that Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings remained the busiest time for the airport.

“Even with all security lanes operating, we expect some queuing during the busy peaks of at least 20 minutes,” he said.

“This (Monday) morning we had 3849 people depart the domestic terminal between 6am and 7am, which is near capacity, but the lines kept moving,”

Between December 2021 and January 2022, just 1425,000 travelled through Brisbane Airport compared to the 3,361,000 who chose to fly between December 2022 and January 2023.