Alice Springs airport traffic skyrockets 887pc compared to this time last year

Airport traffic has shot up a whopping 887 per cent in Alice Springs compared to this time last year.

AIRPORT traffic has shot up a whopping 887 per cent in Alice Springs compared to this time last year, when the NT had essentially shut its border to the rest of the world.

More than 32,000 people passed through the town’s airport in April alone, compared to just over 3000 people during the same month in 2020.

Airport general manager David Batic said the 2021 figure was still down about 30 per cent on pre-Covid levels, largely due to the loss of the international market.

Mr Batic said domestic travellers had helped fill the gap created by the halt on travellers from outside Australia.

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“We have seen a sharp increase in domestic travellers,” he said.

“Our domestic numbers now are far more than they were two years ago.

“That’s a real positive.”

Mr Batic, who is also the general manager of Tennant Creek Airport, said the recovery of the Territory’s airports had been “quite pleasing”, but pointed out that Darwin’s airport carried the brunt of the aviation industry decline due to its positioning as the Territory’s primary international airport.

Mr Batic said his organisation’s decision to retain all 90 airport staff amid the worst of the decline had allowed the airport to bounce back. “To reduce our staff members would have made it very difficult to regain numbers,” he said.

“It paid dividends because we’re now in good shape to manage the increase.”