Traffic surges through Sydney as international visitor numbers climb

Traffic has surged through Sydney Airport over the past month as international holidaymakers and visitors have continued to favour Aussie shores.

In May, Tourism Australia revealed that more than nine million people visited the country throughout FY18, representing a 6.1 per cent increase on the year previous.

The latest statistics from Sydney Airport showed no signs of bucking that upward trend into the new financial year, as foreign visitor numbers grew by a margin of 5.2 per cent in June.

According to Sydney Airport CEO Geoff Culbert, certain key markets and seat additions to certain flights buoyed its performance.

"Sydney's top five fastest growing inbound passenger groups over the month were Taiwan, Vietnam, India, Indonesia and USA," says Culbert.

"Overall international passenger growth was driven by the delivery of additional seat capacity."

Earlier this month, a new "liberalised air service agreement" was established between India and Australia which could have a significant impact on international travel as Australia becomes accessible from further corners of the world.

"The new 'Open Skies' agreement is fantastic news given our extensive advocacy for liberalisation and significant demand for direct air travel between the two countries," says Culbert.

"This move makes Australia one of only a few countries worldwide to hold an Open Skies agreement with India and means that over 40 per cent of the world's population is now within unconstrained bilateral air service range from Sydney."

Virgin Australia launched its daily Sydney-Hong Kong route on 2 July which represents 200,000 incremental annual seats.

Qantas has also announced additional capacity to Singapore, Jakarta and Noumea from December 2018 which is expected to deliver an incremental 116,000 annual seats.