Brisbane Airport achieves 4.5% growth in 2012

18-Jan-2013

A record of more than 21.5 million passengers through Brisbane Airport was achieved in 2012, resulting in an overall increase of 4.5 per cent (or an additional 928,000 travellers) on 2011.

Brisbane Airport Corporation (BAC) CEO and Managing Director, Julieanne Alroe, said, "Brisbane Airport's 2012 passenger figures are very pleasing given it was another challenging year for the industry both nationally and globally.

"While a lot of this growth is being driven by the resources boom, the addition of more seats and the scheduling of larger aircraft, coupled with very competitive airfares, have also contributed.

"We'd like to thank our airline partners for their continued support and we look forward to further growth in 2013," Ms Alroe said.

Domestic Review

Brisbane Airport achieved a year-on-year increase of 5 per cent, or an additional 820,000 domestic travellers, more than the previous year. Contributing to this result was the increase in weekly flight frequency from 2,700 to 3,000, as well as the injection of over 1.7 million more seats in to the market.

Each month saw a year-on-year increase in passenger numbers, with the greatest passenger growth recorded in January with over 144,800 extra people travelling.

The greatest capacity growth was seen in October with over 250,000 seats added; contributing to a new monthly record being set with more than 1.5 million travellers recorded.

A new 'busiest day' record for the year was also set on 29 September with 61,372 arrivals and departures through the Domestic Terminal, coinciding with the AFL Grand Final day, Riverfire festivities and the October long weekend.

With the resources sector still heavily contributing to demand, seven of the top 10 fastest growing city pairs were intrastate routes with total intrastate traffic volumes growing at three times that of total interstate traffic volumes.

The highest recorded load factors were on fights between Brisbane and Perth and Brisbane and Proserpine with seat occupancy averaging 84 per cent and 79 per cent respectively.

International Review

International passenger volumes in 2012 were marginally higher than in 2011 with a 1.4 per cent increase. This growth was despite a slight decrease in seat capacity and flight frequency throughout the year.

For the first time since 2009, growth in visitor numbers was achieved with emerging Asian markets such as China (19.2 per cent increase) and India (9 per cent increase) out performing more mature markets. Brisbane also achieved greater than national average growth in the China, USA, Papua New Guinea, India and Hong Kong visitor markets.

The busiest day at the International Terminal was on 8 January with 16,916 arrivals and departures recorded.

One of the significant events for 2012 was the launch of Hawaiian Airlines direct non-stop flights between Brisbane and Honolulu three times weekly in November.

"Hawaiian Airlines is the only US airline to offer services to Brisbane and in 2013 we look forward to the introduction of additional services from Hawaiian Airlines, as well as Etihad's increase to daily frequency between Abu Dhabi - Singapore - Brisbane from early February," Ms Alroe said.

With a number of major infrastructure projects completed last year, 2013 is shaping up to be equally eventful for Brisbane Airport.

"BAC is continuing to plan for the future to meet the demands of expected passenger growth and this year the focus is on Phase One works for the new runway, the launch of the next Airport Master Plan, a significant redevelopment within the International Terminal, as well as over 50 civil, building and strategic planning projects across the airport," said Ms Alroe.