Brisbane Airport had its busiest day since the pandemic began on Monday. Around 65,000 passengers, including 8,000 international passengers, moved through the airport on Monday. It’s a long way from Brisbane Airport’s darkest days during the pandemic when an almost empty international terminal was processing just a handful of passengers.
Passenger numbers continue to climb at Brisbane Airport
Brisbane Airport says five of its 11 busiest days this year have occurred in July. The airport puts that down to strong demand for international travel and plenty of events happening within Queensland – bolstering domestic travel to and from the state’s capital city. Over the weekend, Brisbane Airport reported a post-pandemic daily record number of passengers (10,500) moving through the international terminal.
“In good news for Queensland’s tourism recovery, we are welcoming a growing number of international visitors to the State, with the numbers split about 50:50 between arriving and departing passengers,” says Brisbane Airport spokesperson Stephen Beckett. “More than 75% of Queensland’s international visitors come through Brisbane Airport, so the busier we are, the better it is for the State’s tourism and hospitality businesses who’ve done it so tough for the last two and a half years.”
Passenger numbers are recovering at Brisbane Airport (pictured) and starting to become consistently strong rather than spiking. Photo: Brisbane Airport Corporation
Brisbane Airport reports strong local demand for flights to the north of Queensland – Cairns (CNS), Townsville (TSV), and the Whitsundays (PPP). In the international terminal, flights to Fiji, Bali, and Europe remain popular. In passenger number terms, Brisbane is usually Australia’s third-busiest airport after Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL). But it is also usually Australia’s best-connected domestic airport, offering more local city pairs than any other Australian airport. That’s primarily due to a big intrastate network in a geographically large and decentralized state – it sends plenty of travelers through BNE.
International airlines come back to Brisbane
On Tuesday, 22 international flights are landing at BNE. That might pale in comparison to the number of international flights landing in some airports elsewhere, but as recently as 12 months ago, the airport would only see one very lightly loaded international arrival a day. These days, the pace of arrivals has picked up, and importantly, the planes are full.
On Tuesday, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand, Virgin Australia, Air Canada, Malaysia Airlines, Fiji Airways, Air Niugini, Qatar Airways, Nauru Airlines, EVA Airways, Malaysia Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and Emirates aircraft are making an appearance at Brisbane Airport. Qantas has the most international movements, with flights coming in from Norfolk Island (NLK), Auckland (AKL), Queenstown (ZQN), Los Angeles (LAX), and Singapore (SYD). Singapore Airlines also has three flights coming in from their home port, and Air New Zealand also has a trio of flights coming in from airports in that country. The remaining airlines all have single flights into Brisbane on Tuesday.
Emirates is sending their Airbus A380-800 back to Brisbane every evening. Photo: Brisbane Airport Corporation
A diverse number of planes are operating those flights, including Qantas using an Airbus A330-200 on the run from Los Angeles and Air Canada putting a Boeing 787-9 onto the service from Vancouver (YVR). Singapore Airlines sends the Airbus A350-900 into Brisbane. Air New Zealand uses a mix of planes, including the 787-9 on the Auckland – Brisbane route and small Airbus narrowbodies on flights from Christchurch and Wellington. Qatar Airways is using a Boeing 777-300ER on Tuesday’s flight from Doha. But the most eye-catching plane in Brisbane today belongs to Emirates – they’ve sent their A380-800 back to Brisbane, and on Tuesday evening, one of their jumbos will fly in after spending 14 hours in the air operating EK430 from Dubai.