Melbourne Airport records busiest month on record in July

A MID-YEAR winter escape has trumped the Christmas holidays as the most popular time to travel, with Melbourne Airport logging its busiest month on record last month.

A MID-YEAR winter escape has trumped the Christmas holidays as the most popular time to travel, with Melbourne Airport logging its busiest month on record last month.

Almost 3.3 million people travelled through the airport in July, surpassing the previous total of 3.2 million recorded in December last year.

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Melbourne Airport recorded its busiest month on record in July. Picture Jay Town.

July also recorded the busiest day for international travellers, with more than 20,000 passengers touching down in Tullamarine on 15th July.

Melbourne Airport CEO Lyell Strambi said July is consistently one of the airport’s peak travel periods reaching similar passenger numbers to those seen over Christmas and the New Year’s break.

“Victorian travellers have always loved to escape the winter chill by flying overseas or venturing to warmer destinations on the domestic network during July, however we have never experienced such a whirlwind four week period,” said Mr Strambi.

The airport welcomed 131,294 international arrivals between 12 July and 18 July creating a new busiest week for Terminal 2 arrivals.

International travel soared 7.4 per cent in July compared to the same time last year.

Mr Strambi said the spike in international passengers arriving in Melbourne was likely due to Victorians returning from overseas holidays.

School holidays in Europe and the USA, Victoria’s snow season and significant international business events held in Victoria also contributed to high passenger totals, Mr Strambi said.

More than 30 million passengers passed through the airport last year with that number expected to increase to 68 million by 2038.

A major overhaul of the airport including a third runway and extension of current runway lengths is planned to help meet the increase in passengers, Mr Strambi said.

@GenevieveAlison