Sydney Airport closed out the first half of 2024 strongly with a total of 9.7 million passengers passing through the terminals in Q2. This represents a 6.4% increase on passenger traffic during the same period last year and a 91.9% recovery compared to Q2 2019.

Sydney Airport’s T1 international terminal saw 3.8 million passengers pass through in Q2, a 12.1% increase on the same period last year and a 94.3% recovery rate on Q2 2019.

Domestic and regional passenger traffic was up 3.0% on the same period last year, with 6 million passengers coming through the T2 and T3 domestic terminals and a 90.5% recovery rate on Q2 2019.

From an operational perspective, Sydney Airport performed strongly in Q2 2024, posting improvements across all operational metrics compared to the June quarter in 2023.

Highlights included almost 100% of passengers passing through security in under 10 minutes and only five instances during the quarter where kerbside drop off times peaked briefly above 10 minutes.

Sydney Airport CEO Scott Charlton said: “We saw strong international passenger volumes throughout Q2 with seat capacity growing across the markets of Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam versus the same period last year. This was underpinned by increased frequencies including Thai Airways adding a second daily service to Bangkok, Jetstar putting on a new, three-weekly service to Osaka and VietJet Air adding a twice-weekly service to Hanoi.

“On the domestic front, we’re still seeing a lag relative to international due to higher airfares, a lack of capacity and a downturn in discretionary business travel affecting demand.

“We were really pleased with our operational performance this quarter where we saw significant improvements compared to the same time last year. An important aspect is our kerbside performance, and the way traffic congestion has been managed, with not a single day in the domestic precinct where kerbside drop off times peaked above 10 minutes. Maintaining this performance will be critical in the context of the Sydney Gateway project opening later this year.

“From a broader reliability and passenger service perspective, the government’s implementation of the Harris Review Recommendations will be key, particularly the recovery mechanism which will help us catch up faster following weather events and disruptions.

“Airservices Australia had a ‘ground delay protocol’ in place due to weather on 41 out of 91 days during Q2. We know that on each day we are on ground delay, we see on average a 21% increase in cancellations. Over time, that adds up to a lot of cancelled flights that could have potentially been avoided with a recovery mechanism.

“Last Friday’s global technology outage is another good example. It took some airlines a number of days to recover their schedules, and perhaps the impact wouldn’t have been as severe with a recovery mechanism, which is why we are looking forward to working with the Government to implement it as soon as possible.”

Passenger and operational performance data

Click here for the Q2 passenger and performance data.