International travel still 50% down despite June boom

Australian airports are still welcoming less than half the number of international passengers than before COVID, despite a strong start to the winter season. According to new data from the Department of Infrastructure, numbers hit a post-COVID high of 1.6 million in June, up from 1.3m in May. That figure is up significantly from a pandemic low of just 42,000 in September last year, but well down on the 3.3m in the equivalent June month in 2019. Australia opened its international border in stages, first allowing residents and citizens to fly in November 2021, before opening to students, backpackers and skilled migrants shortly after. Finally, the country welcomed vaccinated tourists in February before dropping the controversial mandate in July. The new BITRE numbers, based on ‘total revenue passengers from the top 20 airports’, suggest the local industry has a long way to go before it can fully recover from COVID. The APAC region saw the worst global aviation recovery in 2021 as its countries went into lockdown despite other nations opening up. Analysis from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed APAC’s passenger numbers tumbled by 14% compared to 2020 despite North America’s increasing by 75%.<br/>