A total of 2,732,000 passengers passed through Sydney Airport in February 2023, representing an 80.4% recovery compared to pre-COVID February 2019.

Domestic passenger traffic was 82.9% recovered compared to February 2019, with 1,726,000 travellers through the terminals.

1,006,000 international passengers passed through the airport in February 2023, representing a 76.3% recovery on February 2019 passenger traffic.

In February, Australians traveling abroad again ranked first in the list of top 10 nationalities of passengers travelling through the airport.

The U.S recovery is gaining momentum, with the volume of American visitors 74.1% recovered in February, compared to pre-COVID February 2019.

Chinese travellers went from our 7th most popular nationality in January to the 5th in February, following the border reopening between our two countries at the start of the year.

Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert said: “Momentum is starting to build in our international recovery with China now back open to tourists after three years of border restrictions.

“In December last year, we had just three airlines on the route flying only four return services a week. By the end of April, we’ll have six airlines onboard with 26 flights a week to mainland China.

“There’s still plenty of work ahead, with the number of Chinese nationals travelling through Sydney in February only 24.9 per cent recovered compared to pre-COVID.

“The domestic passenger recovery at Sydney Airport has been stagnant since April last year, with reduced capacity and high airfares impacting people’s travelling habits.”

1. Due to data availability, all international passenger numbers (including PCP, prior corresponding period comparisons) are based on Confirmed Airline Passenger (CAP) data. As per previous information releases, these figures may contain estimates with any adjustments to preliminary statistics included in the year-to-date results in future months

2. Includes Domestic-on-Carriage

3. All data is for arriving and departing international passengers. All data is taken from management accounts, is provisional and subject to revision. All data has been rounded to the nearest thousand and in some instances the total may not be equal to the sum of the parts. Percentage changes have been calculated based on actual figures