MELBOURNE and Sydney airports are boasting record passenger numbers with international arrivals at Tullamarine revealing double-digit growth in August

The number of overseas visitors touching down at Melbourne Airport rose by 14.6 per cent to 477,000 during the month - the airport's best August ever.

August also proved a record month for Sydney with international numbers up 6.3 per cent to 912,000 on the same month last year.

Officials at both airports say the growth can be measured against the growing number of overseas airlines servicing the Australian market and from ongoing price wars on the trans-Pacific and trans-Tasman routes.

Asian arrivals dominated, with 27,286 Chinese passport holders arriving in Melbourne, up 58 per cent on last year and outstripping all other visitors from the region.

The biggest numbers came from across the Tasman with New Zealand arrivals rising 10.9 per cent to 48,556.

But the number of South African, Spanish and German visitors proved a surprise, rising off low bases to reflect triple and double-digit growth.

The launch earlier this year of V Australia's Johannesburg-Melbourne service boosted South African arrivals by 2061, a 174 per cent jump. German visitors were up 12.5 per cent to 5303 passengers while Spanish arrivals rose 23.1 per cent to 1045, numbers the airport attributes to new services operated by Middle East carriers Etihad and Qatar airways.

The Melbourne result followed a record in July when international numbers rose to 519,073 and domestic users peaked at more than 1.87 million.

Domestic traffic in August at both airports also improved significantly with Melbourne reporting a 10.8 per cent, or 178,992, rise in internal traffic to more than 1.84 million passengers.

Sydney numbers were up 8.2 per cent on the August 2009 result, rising by 154,000 to 2.03 million people who used domestic services. International arrivals in Sydney improved 6.3 per cent on the previous year.

The rises were reflected elsewhere with Sydney airport operator MAp reporting a record double-digit month at its airport in Copenhagen, Denmark and strong long-haul traffic numbers at Belgium's Brussels airport.

Melbourne Airport CEO Chris Woodruff forecast further growth, saying that he expected significant improvement in arrivals from Asia.

He said Air India would begin daily services to Melbourne from New Delhi in November and that Air China and China Southern would fly daily to Beijing and Guangzhou.

Jetstar will begin a daily Melbourne-Singapore service in November.

COM FLY WITH US

Melbourne Airport international traffic, August 2010

ASIAN PASSENGERS

China 58% 27,286

Hong Kong 30% 4492

Indonesia 9% 4989

Japan 69% 3894

Malaysia 33% 18,993

Singapore 46% 7756

South Korea 19% 4046

Sri Lanka 18% 2935

Taiwan 31% 2463

Thailand 24% 3692

OTHER PASSENGERS

Australia 12.1% 252,828

Canada 8.0% 2856

France 8.7% 3748

Germany 12.5% 5303

New Zealand 10.9% 48,556

South Africa 173.7% 2061

Spain 23.1% 1045

UK 7.1% 22,275

USA 10.1% 13,293

Source: Melbourne Airport

Originally published as Airport's arrival revival