Melbourne Airport Welcomes 35 Million Passengers, Showing Remarkable Growth

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Melbourne Airport witnessed a remarkable surge in air travel over the past year, with more than 35 million passengers passing through its terminals in the 12 months leading up to June 2024. The airport recorded a total of 35,127,967 travelers during the 2024 financial year, comprising over 24 million domestic passengers and just over 11 million international passengers.

This impressive total marked a significant 14 percent increase compared to the previous year, restoring the airport’s traffic to 94 percent of the pre-pandemic figures from 2019, when over 37 million passengers traveled through Melbourne Airport. International travel rebounded robustly, reaching 96 percent of the 2019 levels, while domestic travel hit 93 percent of the pre-pandemic numbers.

In June alone, passenger volumes soared to 2,772,445, reflecting a 3.7 percent rise from the same month last year and falling just 100,000 passengers short of the June 2019 figures.

Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus expressed her satisfaction with the ongoing growth, highlighting the positive trend and the airport’s recovery trajectory.

“The past year has been one of steady growth. We have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels as well as continued to work hard to introduce new airlines, new routes, more capacity and more choice for travellers,” she said.

“We became the first capital city airport in the nation to exceed pre-pandemic international capacity and we have seen huge growth in markets such as Vietnam and India thanks to liberalised bilateral agreements allowing existing airlines to expand operations while also enabling new airlines to enter the market.

“We’ve also been investing heavily in infrastructure so that we can meet future growth. We’re upgrading our terminals to improve the passenger experience, improving our road network to reduce congestion and planning for a third runway.

“The $3 billion third runway will be a crucial asset for the airport and the state, contributing almost $6 billion to the Victorian economy each year and supporting 51,000 jobs.

“We’re on track to see more than 76 million passengers come through our terminals in 2042, which is more than double today’s figures. If our proposed runway project is approved, it will significantly increase our capacity by allowing simultaneous take-offs and landings, which will help improve on-time performance, increase operational resilience for airlines and provide the additional capacity they need to open Melbourne and its surrounding regions to more destinations, more often.”

Passenger Figures for June 2024

Monthly percentage growth compared to June 2023

Passenger Figures for Financial Year to June

Annual percentage growth compared to Financial Year 2022/23