Passenger numbers at Perth Airport return to pre-Covid levels

Regional travel, underpinned by the FIFO market, continues to surge with February numbers around 31 per cent higher than pre-Covid.

Interstate travel is almost back to 100 per cent (93 per cent), while international travel numbers continue to build to be at 85 per cent of pre-Covid levels.

Perth Airport CEO Kate Holsgrove said the figures are a credit to the Team WA approach to re-building aviation in Western Australia.

“We’re working closely with the State Government and Tourism WA to realise the significant opportunity and economic contribution of the tourism and aviation sector for Western Australia.

“It’s incredible that we’ve been able to reach this milestone in less than 12 months following the full re-opening of borders,” Ms Holsgrove said.

“The international sector was always going to be the biggest challenge however our long-standing relationships with our airline partners and the work we have done to promote travel, re-establish flights and secure new routes is now paying dividends.

“Philippine Airlines will soon commence it new direct service to Manila and All Nippon Airways is lined up to resume Tokyo flights later this year.

“We are mindful we’ve lost two years of potential growth due to the pandemic but that’s not stopping us from cracking on with the job. The results speak for themselves.”

Ms Holsgrove says the recovery has highlighted the need to get moving on construction of a new parallel runway.

“We are at runway capacity in our morning peak periods from Tuesday to Thursday and there are also significant constraints at other times during the day,” Ms Holsgrove said.

“If we want to grow international and domestic tourism, and if we want the resources sector to continue its growth, we need to get on with construction.

“We have the necessary project approval from the Federal Government, and they have also issued the permit required under environment laws to clear the land.

“We continue to await a decision from the Federal Government on an environmental offsets strategy that will allow us to start construction.

“We remain hopeful that the Federal Government will help move this process along as the initial project approval was granted back in 2020.”

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