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Cheap fares to Australia have seen international passenger movements at Christchurch International Airport rise by 13.2 per cent in May, compared with the same month last year.
The trans-Tasman route in particular showed strong growth as a result of reduced airfares.
Traffic to Sydney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast rose between 12 and 15.1 per cent.
"This increase in passenger movements, in what is generally a quieter month for international travel, is reflected across all the airlines," the airport's general manager of marketing and business development, Gareth Owen, said.
He said loadings were up both for value-based airlines like Jetstar, and full service carriers like Emirates.
The traffic was not all one way, either. Mr Owen said another factor was aggressive joint marketing initiatives in Australia, such as Tourism New Zealand's "What's On in the South Island" campaign.
Domestic traffic was comparable to May last year.
The May increase in passenger movements was the airport's biggest year-on-year growth since 15 per cent was recorded in November 2006, and hopes were high that the winter ski season would see the trend continue.
- NZPA
