Queensland Airports: Growth Across The Board For Qal In August
20-Sep-2017 Queensland Airports Limited (QAL) has recorded three per cent growth in passengers in August, with more than 700,000 people moving through its airports on the Gold Coast and in Townsville, Mount Isa and Longreach.
Townsville Airport saw stellar growth of 10.4 per cent on the same month in the prior year, with more than 14,000 additional passengers passing through the terminal in the airport's busiest August on record.
Mount Isa Airport also continued to trend up, with 9.2 per cent growth. Longreach is showing a decline of 10.1 per cent due to the way transit passengers are recorded, which when adjusted actually represents growth of 12.5 per cent.
A summary of results is provided in the table below:
| Airport | August 2017 | August 2016 | Growth |
| Gold Coast | 528,080 | 523,063 | 1.0% |
| Townsville | 150,730 | 136,560 | 10.4% |
| Mount Isa | 18,198 | 16,670 | 9.2% |
| Longreach | 3,074 | 3,419 | -10.1%* |
| Total passengers | 700,082 | 679,712 | 3.0% |
| Totals exclude transit passengers.
*Longreach passenger numbers, adjusted for transit passenger count, were up 12.5%. |
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QAL CEO Chris Mills said the result showed a consistent upward trend across the group.
"Gold Coast Airport's modest growth of one per cent comes after some strong months last year," he said.
"Townsville Airport is the standout with very strong performance across its domestic and international services over the past couple of months.
"Melbourne is a growing market for Townsville, and the number of additional passengers coming into the region has obvious flow on benefits for the local economy."
Mr Mills said Mount Isa Airport's growth of 9.2 per cent, or a total of 18,198 passengers, was also a sign of renewed confidence in the region.
"This is Mount Isa Airport's seventh consecutive month of growth. The results we are seeing out of Mount Isa certainly bode well for the community," he said.
Mr Mills said growth across the group supported QAL's capital investment program.
"Both Gold Coast and Townsville airports are operating above capacity at peak times, and we look forward to progressing the redevelopment plans for these airports," Mr Mills said.