Chinese travellers rediscovering Australia as airline capacity climbs

Chinese travellers are again on the move, with Sydney Airport recording a healthy surge in traffic.

The return of Chinese visitors to Australia is gaining momentum, with numbers through Sydney Airport back to about 40 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels in March.

Monthly passenger traffic released by the airport showed encouraging growth in international travellers even as domestic numbers flatlined.

For the first time since borders reopened, international passengers exceeded 80 per cent of pre-Covid-19 levels, with US visitors now second only to Australians through Sydney Airport.

Chinese visitors ranked fifth overall, with numbers rebounding from about 25 per cent of 2019 figures in February, to 39.6 per cent last month.

Sydney Airport chief executive Geoff Culbert said the international travel growth was a reflection of new airlines and routes coming online.

Vietjet has begun three flights a week between Sydney and Ho Chi Minh, Virgin Australia is now flying to Samoa three times a week, Emirates will add a third daily flight to Dubai from May 1, and from October 28 United Airlines will go twice daily Sydney-San Francisco.

United Airlines is among the carriers increasing international capacity into Sydney, in a move welcomed by the airport. Picture: NCA NewsWire

In addition, by the end of April, six carriers will operate 26 flights a week between Sydney and mainland China, up from a mere four flights a week in December.

“With China now open for business, and the European and North American summer almost here, we anticipate our international traffic will continue to pick up in the coming months,” Mr Culbert said.

Visitors from India and the Philippines exceeded pre-pandemic levels in March, and the number of UK travellers reached its highest point since travel bans were lifted last February.

Domestic passenger traffic was 89.2 per cent recovered compared to March 2019 with just over 2 million travellers through the T2 and T3 terminals.

However, indicative data for the first half of April was tracking back at the mid-80 per cent mark, the airport noted.

Mr Culbert previously blamed high airfares and limited capacity for putting the clamps on the domestic travel recovery, suggesting it had been “stagnant” since April 2022.

Latest airfare data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed in April, best discount prices improved slightly, but full price economy was unchanged at 81.7 per cent of the long term average fare.

Domestic business class fares continued to creep up to 61.8 per cent of the long-term average, compared to 46.3 per cent at the same time last year.