Sydney Airport warns local carriers to increase flights or risk hurting recovery

China Southern, China Eastern and Xiamen Air have all operated passenger flights to Sydney Airport up to three times a week over the last three years and have committed to increasing these services. Air China has also announced its return to Australia, with flights commencing next month.

Next month, China Southern will be the first airline to return to daily services between China and Australia’s two biggest airports. Culbert expects more carriers to follow suit.

Air New Zealand is the only regional carrier which has returned to servicing the China route, with Qantas still only offering cargo services. Unlike Australia, New Zealand has not mandated a COVID-19 test on international arrivals from China.

The Qantas Group’s domestic capacity hovers at about 85 per cent of pre-covid but is still lagging behind on international routes despite recently increasing services on the Queenstown and Fiji route and launching a new service to Soul.

International competitor Virgin Australia emerged from the pandemic after a brief stint in administration under new ownership. The carrier has refined its fleet and will add 13 additional aircraft this year and is preparing to launch direct services from Sydney to Vanuatu and Samoa.

After a bumpy year of operational performance across the aviation sector, Sydney Airport finished the year on a high, with more 95 per cent of domestic passengers clearing security in less than 10 minutes in December.

The airport blamed insufficient staffing levels for the major delays over peak periods of 2022 but says it’s now ready to cope with the influx of international travellers more flights in and out of the country will bring.

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Melbourne Airport is looking to boost its workforce by more than 2000 to cope with an expected surge in international arrivals as China’s main airlines ramp up services. Melbourne Airport predicts China’s return to the region to boost the number of international passengers to 80 per cent of 2019 levels by March.

More than 2.5 million passengers passed through Melbourne airport in December, the highest monthly total since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in large part due to international airlines increasing capacity. The December figure is about 79 per cent of the 3.3 million who travelled over the same period in 2019.

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