Auckland Airport is partly pinning the 23% monthly rise in arrivals from Japan on increased promotion including charter flights in partnership with Air New Zealand.January arrivals from Japan, at 6,289, were up 23% on the same month last year. In November
Auckland Airport is partly pinning the 23% monthly rise in arrivals from Japan on increased promotion including charter flights in partnership with Air New Zealand.
January arrivals from Japan, at 6,289, were up 23% on the same month last year. In November, the Japanese market saw its first positive rise in a year and December saw another 11.6% surge.
Arrivals from Korea also rose in January by 20.8%.
The company said economic conditions had also slightly improved in the region.
The trans-Tasman market continued to perform well, with a 17.2% increase in arrivals from Australia compared to January 2009. Auckland Airport said the Sydney and Gold Coast routes led the positive result and showed the demand for competitive rates and short haul holidays.
Domestic volumes showed the highest growth of any month so far in the financial year, with 481,995 passengers – 11.8% up on January last year.
In the week ending January 10, a record number of weekly international passengers passed through arrivals, at 154,000 people.
International arrivals, excluding transit passengers, which were down 12.6% on last year, showed a slight improvement at 3.8%.
The worst performing market was China, where the trend towards a declining market continued. Compared to January 2009, arrivals from China were down 31.4%.
About 850 more people travelled through arrivals for education/medical reasons than last year – a 9.4% rise.
Visiting friends and relatives was another strong reason for travel, up 7.4%. The business travel/conference sector showed a small improvement on last year, at 1.5%.
Auckland Airport shares (NZX: AIA) last traded up .4 cents to $1.91.
