Perth Airport Reports Positive Numbers for 08/09 Financial Year

Perth Airport has reported an impressive 6.1% increase in passenger numbers for the 2008/2009 financial year.

Over 9.7 million passengers travelled through Perth Airport during this period, an increase of 555,815 passengers over the previous financial year. International passenger growth stood at 4.2%, while a domestic passenger growth of 6.7% was recorded.

Perth Airport CEO Brad Geatches said the continued levels of growth at Perth Airport were a result of increased domestic and international capacity, particularly within the low cost sector, as well as the strength of the aviation sector in the West.

“We are extremely pleased to report that both our domestic and international markets have continued to grow over the past twelve months, despite fears surrounding the global financial crisis and the potential to impact aviation services, which seem to be ill-founded in the WA market,” Mr Geatches said.

“While the number of passengers increased during 2008/2009, the commercial aviation market became far more challenging for our airline partners in 2009 and many found it necessary to discount airfares to support demand.”

Perth Airport’s passenger figures demonstrate that Western Australia has been less affected by the global economic crisis than in other areas of Australia. Perth has a number of natural hedges in its aviation markets which make the business resilient including interstate, intrastate and international markets with good balance of reason for travel between leisure, business and visiting friends and relatives.

“The domestic market has contributed substantially to our increased figures with our intrastate travellers performing strongly with 15% growth, particularly fly-in fly-out travellers associated with the resource sector. We have also benefited from new intrastate and interstate services by Virgin Blue, Tiger Airways and Jetstar, as well as new services from Skywest,” Mr Geatches added.

“Internationally, the rise in low cost airlines has significantly contributed to the increase in our passenger numbers with new services from Jetstar, Pacific Blue and AirAsia X proving extremely popular with West Australian travellers who use these routes as gateways to Asia and beyond.”

Perth Airport has also benefited from a substantial growth in the Indonesian and Malaysian markets with passenger figures for those travelling to Bali up significantly with a 42% increase on the last financial year. The number of Malaysian nationals travelling to Western Australia is also strong with passenger numbers up by 30%.

Perth Airport’s redevelopment plans remain on track with $70 million invested in aviation infrastructure during the 2008/09 financial year and a further investment of $190 million planned for 2010. Works have commenced at both the International and Domestic Terminals to improve access, ease traffic congestion and provide a safer road network for all users and construction of Terminal WA has also commenced with a 26 hectare aircraft parking apron now complete.

Perth Airport’s Draft Master Plan (2009-2014) will be submitted to the Commonwealth Government in August. It identifies the land use at Perth Airport and guides decisions made in relation to planning and development of the Perth Airport Estate.

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