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RECORD numbers of travellers used the Gold Coast Airport (GCA) in January this year, continuing a five-year trend of growth for the facility owned by Queensland Airports Limited.
More than 624,000 passengers used the airport in January as a primary departure or arrival station, an increase of 1.7 per cent on the same time last year.
"We are particularly pleased with the international growth GCA recorded for January 2017, which increased 8.3 per cent compared to January 2016m," says QAL CEO Chris Mills.
"This can be attributed to the commencement of international services with AirAsiaX to Auckland in March 2016, as well as increased capacity with Hong Kong Airlines to Hong Kong over the Chinese New Year period.
"The 2017 record month comes on the back of an historic calendar year at GCA in 2016, in which a record 6.4 million passengers passed through the airport."
Domestic passengers made up the bulk of custom at the airport nearly five for every one overseas visitor but figures for domestic travel increased marginally at 0.5 per cent compared to the international market growth.
More than 100,000 international travellers used the Gold Coast Airport in January, another record number for the station.
The Gold Coast Airport used to be called the Coolangatta Airport and was privatised in 1998 by the federal government when authorities granted QAL a 99-year lease.
Townsville, Mount Isa and Longreach Airports are also owned by QAL but Townsville Airport was the only one besides Gold Coast to achieve growth in passenger numbers last year.
Business News Australia
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