Tate Papworth
The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to batter Melbourne Airport.
Passenger numbers for the 2019-2020 financial year fell to the same levels they were 10 years ago.
With more than 27.2 million people flying over the past financial year, overall traveller volumes were down by -27.2 per cent compared to the same time in 20182019.
For the month of June, international figures decreased by 98.3 per cent due to worldwide restrictions on air travel and domestic numbers were down by 93.7 per cent compared to June 2019.
Melbourne Airport Chief of Aviation Shane O’Hare said the coronavirus health pandemic was the biggest crisis to hit the aviation industry.
“Australia has had a difficult 12 months. First it was ravaged by bushfires – starting way back in spring for some states, then the COVID-19 health pandemic,” said Mr O’Hare.
“To deal with the impacts to our operation, our response to the pandemic needed to be safe, sensible and sustainable as we continued to support commercial flights and freight movements.
Mr O’Hare said Melbourne Airport has a strong liquidity position and was prepared to weather the crisis through very careful management of costs.
“We’ve taken a very conservative approach to modelling what we think a return to the skies might look like for Melbourne and Victoria. The aborted July restart was disappointing, but not surprising. We will need to learn to adapt to the prospect of further outbreaks.”
