Airport going from strength to strength

Sunshine Coast Airport has recorded more than 250,000 passengers travelling through the airport in the first three months of the financial year - a 12% increase on the previous quarter and the highest September quarter traffic on record.

Combined with an 11% year on year capacity increase and 84% average load, the strong demand for direct services to and from the airport is clear to be seen.

Mayor Mark Jamieson said the results were evidence of the growing confidence in the region.

“The strong economic performance of the Sunshine Coast is now clearly visible and the growing popularity of our airport shows great faith and confidence in our region,” Mayor Jamieson said.

“The ongoing investment by airlines in servicing our airport is terrific news and not only supports all the great work happening in our tourism sector but also provides greater convenience for our local residents.”

Sunshine Coast Airport general manager Peter Pallot said: “We started with a stellar July, continued with a very strong August and topped the quarter off with an amazing September.”

“A total of 89,610 passengers utilised the flight services at Sunshine Coast Airport in September, that’s a 14% increase year on year and the highest number of passengers per month since January 2009,” Mr Pallot said.

“We can’t thank locals enough for choosing to ‘Fly Local’ and demonstrate their desire to use their own airport.

“Coupled with the excellent work Sunshine Coast Destination are doing to drive visitors to our region, we have made a strong case for ‘more seats, more often’.

“The airlines are responding to the demands of travellers for increased capacity into the Sunshine Coast and passengers are taking advantage of the extra seats by making Sunshine Coast Airport their airport of choice.”

Sunshine Coast Destination Ltd CEO Simon Ambrose welcomed the news of airline and passenger increases to the Sunshine Coast Airport and the region.

“The Sunshine Coast is growing in popularity and this news demonstrates flying into and out of the Sunshine Coast makes good business and travel sense,” Mr Ambrose

“The increases and investment in the region are reflective of the positive tourism and business confidence of the past months.

“In particular, the news validates work by SCDL on campaigns such as the pre-winter Flight Centre promotion that resulted in a 55% increase in sales and 73% increase in passenger numbers compared to the same period last year.

“We also commend the outstanding work being done in conjunction with us by our partners Sunshine Coast Airport and Sunshine Coast Council.”

Year on year, an additional 30,055 seats, or 1.4 daily return flights, were added at Sunshine Coast Airport during the September quarter.

Jetstar, Virgin Australia and Air New Zealand all posted double-digit passenger growth over the same period.