Auckland Airport's international visitor growth stalls with drop from Australia; domestic rises

Monday 24th May 2010

Auckland International Airport said growth in international passenger volumes stalled last month, reflecting a drop in visitors from Australia, while traffic on domestic routes accelerated.

Including transits, international passenger volumes were unchanged at 608,266 in April, the airport said in a statement today. Arrivals from Australia fell 3% to 53,683, which the airport put down to the earlier timing of Australian school holidays. Domestic passenger volumes grew 7.9%, helped by increased demand for the Jetstar service which replaced parent Qantas Airways in July last year and a better performance from Air New Zealand and Pacific Blue.

Shares of Auckland Airport rose 0.5% to $1.89 and have fallen about 9% this year, lagging behind the NZX 50 Index’s 7% slide.

Australia is the biggest source of visitors to New Zealand and has been the target of a marketing push shares between Air New Zealand and the government with the aim of luring more people across the Tasman. An abundance of seats on Tasman routes has meant Australians have been able to book flights to New Zealand at cheaper rates than some domestic routes.

Visitors from the UK, the biggest source of passengers through the airport after New Zealanders and Australians, dropped 19.8% to 11,914 last month.

Visitors from China fell 3% to 9,925 and those from the US declined 8.8% to 9,545. Elsewhere in Asia, the volumes grew, with a 9.2% jump in visitors from Japan, 24.5% from South Korea and 48.3% from Thailand.

In April, the number of people who gave their reason for visiting New Zealand as business or conference rose 17.6% to 38,616, while holidayers fell 4.5% to 55,920, and those on medical or educational visits rose 7.8% to 6,052. Those visiting friends or relatives fell 13.2% to 41,952.

Businesswire.co.nz

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